The Black Box Thinking. This book has a small subtitle that reads: "How to make mistakes correctly." This book teaches us to comfort ourselves when we fail from time to time. The author believes that learning from failure and one's own mistakes is an indispensable quality for a successful person.
The Black Box. You've surely heard of it. It is a device for recording sounds that are in the cockpit and all the operating systems of the entire aircraft. If an accident occurs on the plane, as long as this black box can be found, they can obtain data and sounds that occurred during the flight and can analyze and find the cause of the plane crash.
Aviation companies do not hide the information contained in this black box. They always present it to the public, staff, and their own teams, bringing it for joint analysis and using it as a lesson. Learning from the mistakes of others, mistakes that are so serious they result in the loss of life like this, makes staff and specialists, including all work teams, understand the importance of safety and remember those mistakes in their minds.
For decades, doing this has made air travel the safest mode of transportation in the world. The author found that this method is not widely used in other sectors. He collected data in the health sector. The data shows that patients who die from preventable negligence number up to 400,000 people per year around the world. For example, using the wrong medicine, not providing emergency care in time, or performing surgery negligently. All these mistakes are preventable, yet they cause more than half a million deaths each year.
These problems can also be caused by insufficient resources or the complexity of the patient's condition. But the author believes that the main cause is negligence and a lack of attention to learning from the same mistakes over and over again. In other sectors, it's the same. When faced with problems and failures, they tend to have an old-fashioned mindset, not daring to bring them up for discussion or use them as a lesson. Instead, they try to hide and forget them. This habit causes people to continue making mistakes and creates bigger problems later.
But in the aviation sector, the use of a black box to collect data and then analyze, dissect, and learn from mistakes that have happened in the past like this, is called "black box thinking." The author of this book is named Matthew Syed. He is an English table tennis player, a journalist, and the author of a column for The Times magazine since 1999. In this book, he has gathered many examples, directing us to see the positive aspects of failure, to learn and adapt from the failures we have encountered.
Below, we will extract the key ideas from this book and summarize them for everyone. The key ideas in this book are divided into three parts. Part 1: How is black box thinking different from conventional thinking? Part 2: Why do people not admit their own mistakes? And Part 3: How can we learn from our mistakes?
Let's take Part 1 to discuss. How is black box thinking different from conventional thinking? In the past, the culture and habits in human life were very difficult to accept mistakes that happened in life. Whenever someone does something wrong, people tend to blame, find fault, look down on, and devalue them, as if making a mistake once makes them a bad person. Until now, this culture still exists. People from young to old are afraid of making mistakes, which causes them to lose many opportunities in life. Students don't dare to raise their hands to answer questions, afraid of doing the exercise wrong and being punished by the teacher. Staff don't dare to express their opinions, afraid of being told their ideas are childish. People with talent don't dare to show their work because they are afraid of failure and being ridiculed.
Therefore, the fear of failure and the lack of understanding of how to respond to failure is a barrier to development in all sectors. To explain this clearly, we break down these two phrases. First: Wrong, but not knowing it's wrong. And the second phrase: Knowing it's wrong and correcting it. To be wrong and not know it's wrong is a very dangerous thing. It means there is no standard to indicate that this is wrong, and there is no one to analyze whether it is wrong or right. Every time a problem arises, they only blame the cause and forget it. The next day, it's still wrong. This cannot make things improve because we did not learn from mistakes and make corrections.
Second is to know it's wrong and to correct it. It means that when a mistake occurs, they do not blame the person who caused the mistake but take it for analysis and study. They even write it as an internal regulation or a law so that future people do not make the same mistake. For example, during the 2nd century AD, treating diseases by drawing out bad blood with needles was very popular in the Western world. Whenever someone was sick, no matter the symptoms, they would be pricked with a needle to draw out the bad blood. This method of treatment, if we look at it in modern times, seems incredibly foolish. But it was considered by people in the world to be the most effective treatment method of that era. This is because, in that era, no one took this method to analyze whether it was wrong or right. Everyone believed in it, and there was no standard to confirm that doing this was wrong.
At most, if treatment with this method still could not save a life, they would have an excuse to say that it was because the illness was too severe; even drawing out the bad blood couldn't help. See? They made a mistake and didn't know it was a mistake, but instead tried to find reasons to support the mistake. It was only later that this field conducted many experiments and people created more modern and logical treatment methods. People started to believe in modern treatment methods, and those old-fashioned treatment methods were gradually forgotten. In less than 200 years, this field has developed rapidly. Mankind continues to seek new technologies to treat diseases more effectively.
New technologies can be found. Medicines are also created one after another. But the professionalism and caution of doctors have not developed. Because they did not learn from their own mistakes, and if a patient could not be saved, they would never say it was the doctor's fault. At most, there is a phrase saying, "We did our best." Saying this, it's as if the doctor has no responsibility at all for their work. But that's not the case either. Most doctors are professional in their work. They learn so many skills just to save human lives. To say that not being able to save a life is a doctor's fault is also not entirely right.
So why does everyone think it's not a mistake, and even the doctors themselves never say it's their own mistake like this? The author raised two reasons. Reason one: It's a natural thing. As long as a person is convinced of something, when others say it's wrong or not good, they tend to look for reasons or evidence to defend their own understanding. This is why we see debates and attacks against each other. This is because people have different views, and they defend their beliefs and their own perceptions. In the book "Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)," this point is also elaborated on. If we have the chance, we will summarize it for you all.
Reason two is a perspective that understands that making a mistake equals having no ability. When facing failure, they are always afraid that everyone will judge them as incompetent. We still use the example of doctors. In this field, people always think that the doctor has done their best. This one phrase is enough to push away all the responsibilities of the doctor for the treatment. How much is "their best"? Are there other possible methods? Even the doctors themselves dare not say. The pressure from the outside and the expectations from the patient's family, coupled with overvaluing their own abilities, can cause doctors to fail in saving patients.
What is important is that when a mistake occurs, the doctor never admits their mistake and learns from it to use as a lesson later. This is what the author has pointed out as a gap in the health sector that we need to rethink. In summary, the author wants to point out that denying and not accepting failure is the root of the real problem that hinders the development of a sector.
Let's go back to the aviation sector. The attitude towards facing problems and mistakes is completely different. Pilots are extremely cautious, and engineers must also have a higher level of professional expertise than in other fields. During the 1940s, the famous Boeing B-17 aircraft often encountered problems with its landing gear. Subsequent investigations found that this problem was caused by the design of the buttons in the pilot's cockpit. The button that controlled the ailerons, which control left and right turns, and the button that controlled the tail, which controls landing, were the same color and placed next to each other. This caused pilots to get confused when landing and in emergencies. The solution was simple. They redesigned it by placing the two buttons far apart and giving them different colors, and this problem never happened again since then.
Learning from mistakes and improving to be better like this has been used in the aviation sector for decades. Through decades of refinement, this sector has become the mode of travel with the highest safety in the world. If in other sectors, such as the health sector, they could use this black box thinking and apply it in their own field, learning from mistakes and failure experiences, we believe that this sector will develop another level and save more lives.
Let's summarize a bit from this first part. The old-fashioned perception, criticism, and mental pressure that everyone blames on someone when they do something wrong has made people hesitant and afraid of failure. This makes it difficult for them to face mistakes and lose the opportunity to learn from them. Black box thinking makes us change our attitude towards failure. And we have also raised the reasons that make people always want to avoid failure, which are two reasons. First, when people believe in something, they tend to find excuses to support their own beliefs, even if they know it's not right. And the second reason is an incorrect view that sees making a mistake as a sign of incompetence. That's why people are so afraid of making mistakes.
Above, we have already talked about the special characteristics of black box thinking and its benefits. Next, let's analyze a bit about why people don't dare to face mistakes. Let's read to a real example in this book. Unilever company, everyone probably knows it. To produce laundry detergent, they put a mixture of ingredients and raw materials into a machine and apply pressure at a certain level, then spray it out into even-sized particles. When it dries, it becomes fine granules, like the detergent powder you have seen.
In this production cycle, the machine head for spraying the detergent powder is the most important stage. But the problem is that this spray head often gets clogged, which makes them spend a lot of time and budget to fix it, and it also disrupts the production cycle. When it breaks down once, the staff have to stand around with no work to do for two or three days. It's a big loss. So the problem they want to solve is to produce a spray head that can spray finely enough and not get clogged easily.
To solve this problem, Unilever invited many experts to redesign this spray head. They were all experts in mechanics, dynamics, and design. These experts spent a lot of time studying and researching, using all their knowledge to design this spray head. Later, they got a brand new spray head for this company. But as a result, it still didn't work when used; the clogging problem still occurred.
Unilever was at its wit's end, so it invited a biology professor to try to redesign it. The method the professor used was not to use knowledge of dynamics, mechanics, or research to find a formula. He conducted an experiment right away. First, he created 10 different types of spray heads and tested which one had the best performance. Then he took that spray head and continued to modify it, going back and forth more than 45 times. Later, they found a spray head that could spray with the best particle size. In this experiment, he tested 450 times before achieving success. If you think about it, he failed 449 times.
The story is interesting in that the starting point is very important. The first group used their existing knowledge to design this thing to meet the requirements by trying to avoid failure. While the second group used failure as the basis for designing a successful product. The previous failures are all part of this final success. Missing any one of them would not be possible. If we look at the design of this spray head, it is the result of refining the mistakes of 449 times. Only then could they find the best design. It is not the result of calculation and not being afraid of mistakes by design experts.
Speaking of this point, we probably understand that if this method is so effective, why do people seem to not value it and not many people apply it? This is because there is another bias that hinders our thinking like this, where we tend to underestimate things, thinking that things are simple or overvaluing our own abilities, thinking we are smart enough to do it. In the book "The Black Swan," which I have summarized for you all once, it also talks a bit about this. "The Black Swan" refers to any event that happens contrary to expectations, that has never happened before. And when it happens, it causes the world to change to a new context. It is like a turning point that rejects things or habits that have happened before. You can all find this book to read to just by typing "The Black Swan" in English in the book search box.
The author of this book has pointed out that after something happens, people like to find reasons to blame or some excuse to conform to a result that cannot be changed. For example, the case of former Italian football player Fabio Capello, who became the coach of the England national team in 2007. He was a strict person, managing the football team very tightly. Even what they ate, where they went, what they did, this coach had to watch them closely. People praised him for managing the team well and being strict with the players. But during the 2008 World Cup, the England national football team was not successful. People started to blame and criticize Capello, saying that because he was too strict, the players were under pressure and could not perform to their full potential.
People always find excuses to explain things in line with what has happened. Sometimes, the same reason can be used to say two different things to fit the outcome that has already happened. In fact, whether the England football team was successful or not is related to many factors. It could be from the team itself not practicing enough, it could be that the opponent was too strong, or it could be from the mentality of each player and the cooperation during the match. Many factors combined result in this outcome. But we always think that things are too simple.
This is human nature. We always have high expectations for the outcome that has happened. We expect success more than failure, we are confident in our abilities and knowledge, and we forget about other factors that influence the final outcome. But if we take failure as the path we have to cross to use as an experience to achieve success, from the beginning, we understand the importance and prepare to accept it from the start and know how to fix it to achieve that success, perhaps the result would be completely different.
In the section above, we have described the importance of facing failure and know the reason why most people cannot accept failure. In this final part, we come to the most important point, which is how to learn from failure. We always hear people say that "failure is the mother of success." This phrase is not wrong. Today, we will break it down to make it easier to understand. We always mistake that success and failure are two different paths. When doing something, if you don't lose, you win. In fact, it's the same path. But this path has to go through failure first and go through it many times, and behind those failures is success.
But before achieving success, there is an important condition, which is to learn from failure. How to learn from failure? The author has recommended three points. Point one: First, we should not overestimate our own abilities. When the author was studying at Oxford, he noticed that during exams, students who were not very good at studying did not study hard. It was only the night before the exam that they picked up their books. As for the good students, when the exam was approaching, they also relaxed. They thought they were already well-prepared. The night before the exam, they went out all night, drank, and during the exam, the results were not very good. We also wonder why people like to do bad things to themselves like this. In psychology, it's called "self-protection."
The reason they do this is because they are afraid of failure and don't dare to face it. They feel uncertain, even though they are normally good students, they are not 100% sure they will get a good grade. So they have to find some excuse to protect themselves in case they don't do well. To put it simply, if a good student passes the exam but the grade is not good, they can say, "If only I hadn't stayed up the night before, the result would probably have been better." And if they fail the exam, they will say, "It's because I didn't sleep at night, my mind wasn't clear in the morning, that's why I failed the exam." These are all excuses they blame on external factors. They will never easily blame themselves. They always find some reasonable excuse to conform to the actual outcome.
The author has pointed out that we must learn to accept our mistakes and allow ourselves to make mistakes, and not to blame ourselves. It does not show that we are incompetent. Mistakes and failures are good lessons for us to find what is right and are a prerequisite for success. Thinking like this, we can live with failure.
Point two: Create a good habit for yourself, don't blame others when they make mistakes. Create a culture that allows everyone to make mistakes. In the face of mistakes and failures, most people tend to blame others and mistakenly think that doing so makes people know they are wrong, understand the consequences and the seriousness of their mistakes. Only by scolding will they be willing to change. But on the contrary, chasing after right and wrong, and blaming others, makes things worse. Creating a tolerant atmosphere can make things better and lead to improvement. At Oxford, they have a day where they invite former administrators, famous people, or professors to hold an event they call "Failure Day." These people are invited to share their failure experiences so that students in the school can learn and understand that before they achieve success, what failure experiences they have gone through and how they solved them to be where they are today.
Point three: Use failure as a model to build upon. There is a method called a "pre-mortem test." In this method, they assume that a project has already failed. This is how they do it. Before the project starts, they announce to everyone that this project has failed. Now, please everyone come together to analyze the reasons why this project failed. Each member thinks and considers the reasons that could make this project fail. Doing this makes us aware of the blind spots that everyone might overlook. When it is announced that the project has failed, everyone will find every reason and excuse that would make the project fail, which can reveal many problems that we normally wouldn't think of. This is the method that uses the least capital, the shortest time, and is the most effective. You can all try it.
The important points in this book are just this much. Let's do a quick review. People tend to be hard on themselves for the mistakes they have made. This is human nature. In the face of failure, we always blame external factors, which makes us afraid of failure and causes us to lose the opportunity to learn from it. Black box thinking helps us change this negative mindset and makes us dare to face failure. But to do this, we need to understand two reasons. Reason one: We must know that when people believe in something, they will look for reasons to support their beliefs, even if it's wrong. And reason two: We must know that making a mistake does not mean being incompetent.
Next, we have pointed out that failure is not the final result. It is just the path we have to cross to achieve success. We must learn to embrace failure and be mentally prepared from the beginning. Finally, we have learned about three ways to learn from failure. First, we must know that failure does not negate your ability. Mistakes and ability are two different things. Second, we must create an atmosphere that allows ourselves and everyone to experiment and not to blame anyone when they make a mistake. We must learn to encourage and share failure experiences. Lastly, we must learn to imagine that if it fails, what could be the reasons? Prepare in advance that if it fails, what measures everyone has to improve the situation.