Margin of safety

12 Life Lessons From Mathematician and Philosopher Gian-Carlo Rota

The mathematician and philosopher Gian-Carlo Rota spent much of his career at MIT, where students adored him for his engaging, passionate lectures. In 1996, Rota gave a talk entitled “Ten Lessons I …

Making the Most of Second Chances

We all get lucky. Once in a while we do something really stupid that could have resulted in death, but didn’t. Just the other day, I saw someone who was texting walk out into oncoming traffic, …

Margin of Safety: Expect the Unexpected

An edited excerpt from The Great Mental Models v3: Systems and Mathematics When we interact with complex systems, we need to expect the unexpected. Systems do not always function as anticipated. They …