Black Box Thinking: The Surprising Truth About Success

I’ve read a few books like this lately, partly because there is a crossover with my day job, but mostly because I like ideas. This was definitely the best. It’s an extremely well written and engrossing examination of a simple concept, that failure is valuable because it helps us get better. Unlike some other similar books it never felt like it outlived it’s welcome. The examples used to illustrate the point were well chosen and often grippingly relayed. I was surprised at what a page turner ‘Black Box Thinking’ could be, and also that it moved me deeply at times.
In summary then, this is intellectually stimulating, great fun to read and full of insight. I loved it.

4.5 stars

Years ago I joked that my new year's resolution would be "Make more mistakes" meaning that I would be pushing myself outside of my comfort zone and trying new things. This book pushes the idea one step further. Make more "mistakes" and learn from them.We should learn from the aviation industry which uses their black boxes to learn from their mistakes.

I got queasy from the stories of mistakes in the medical field leading to death. I got even more queasy reading the length the medical world would cover up their mistakes. Well, Matthew also shows when investors, judges, and corporate leaders also cover up their mistakes in the face of strong evidence.

What a terrific read for anyone interested in personal or organizational performance, safety, quality improvement or change (also useful for parents and teachers). It's built around highly-readable cases taken from health, aviation, justice, sports, and industry and beautifully integrates science and philosophy. Highly recommended.

This was an engaging and interest-provoking book (I ended up with a list of referenced books and papers I now want to read) about failure and the vital importance of learning from failure. It had anecdotes and statistics from aviation, health care, criminal justice, animation, sports, education, and more. I feel like it could have been shorter, and the last section tried to be practical (as opposed to theoretical) and I think it failed at that.

Overall, a solid non-fiction read that held my interest almost to the end; and a good overview of some important topics like cognitive dissonance, marginal gains, creativity, and growth mindset.

Favorite quotes:

"The idea that the successful safety record in aviation has emerged from the rubble show more of real-world accidents is vivid, paradoxical, and profound."

"...this is invariably how progress happens. It is an interplay between the practical and the theoretical, between top-down and bottom-up, between creativity and discipline, between the small picture and the big picture...failure is a blessing, not a curse."

"If we are operating in an environment without meaningful feedback, we can't improve." show less

Easy to read and interesting although most of the "insights" are nothing new. Like most of these business self-help books there's lots of "shouding" but no actual guidance on how to do these things. I work in health - I know. People in the SAME organisation don't know what other improvements are being made, never mind what other organisations are doing.

Good read. Certainly has a military bent but great application of the idea. Accurate recording of your errors is so core to making good mistakes. Recommended.

What a great book. How to improve systems and reduce error rates. This is a synthesis of many of my favourite books. As an entrepreneur and serial self-improver I love the insights this book gives