Tag Archives: mistakes

“If it bleeds, we can kill it”

Posted on June 13, 2012 by dwighttowers

Popped round to a friend’s house, and mid-conversation found myself trying to do Arnold Schwarzenegger’s accent – “if it bleeds, we can kill it” from Predator. Sadly, I came out Mexican. It was in the context of individuals (bullies, specifically) … Continue reading →

Posted in activism, bureaucracy, competence, fear | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Nobody really likes it when planes drop out of the sky full of passengers.

Posted on April 5, 2012 by dwighttowers

Sure, Boeing or Airbus or whoever get to replace the dead metal bird, but that doesn’t really offset the reputational damage, and oh my goodness aren’t the insurance payouts something ridiculous. There’s a lot that can be done to make … Continue reading →

Posted in a little self-knowledge, activism, competence, death | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The patriarchy, it hurts. No, I mean it really really HURTS

Posted on December 26, 2011 by dwighttowers

There’s  a bloody brilliant TED talk “what happens when an NGO admits failure” by a guy called David Damberger (it is absolutely worth 13 minutes of your life). And this leads on to a bloody brilliant website called “Admitting Failure.”  … Continue reading →

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Leading us all astray?

Posted on November 30, 2011 by dwighttowers

Thanks to the readers who have added very useful comments and links below my “How little we learn” post.  There’s more to come (including some recently published books on the topic), but this cartoon below from xkcd was in my … Continue reading →

Posted in competence, humour | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

How little we learn

Posted on November 26, 2011 by dwighttowers

A couple of weeks ago I had (no) cause to be in an Accident and Emergency department. It is a tale of (my) muppetry that I shall feel secure enough to tell in, oh, fifty years or so. For now, … Continue reading →

Posted in a little self-knowledge | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Achtung Einstellung! Cognitive inertia and all that…

Posted on May 8, 2011 by dwighttowers

The Einstellung effect is the name given to our habit of sticking with “solutions” that have worked in the past, even if there might be more elegant/simple solutions available… Wikipedia has the info, of course… Einstellung is the creation of … Continue reading →

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Mistakes, I’ve made a few, but then again…

Posted on May 7, 2011 by dwighttowers

Another fascinating article about mitsakes and the value (or otherwise) of a Blame Culture… Another serious weakness of the person approach is that by focusing on the individual origins of error, it isolates unsafe acts from their system context. As … Continue reading →

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Metrics for social movements? Pivot on this, Climate Camp…

Posted on March 23, 2011 by dwighttowers

What could a bunch of eco-anarchists have learnt from venture capitalists? When and how to pivot. Tim Kastelle kindly pointed me to this post which starts; “At a board meeting last week I watched as the young startup CEO delivered … Continue reading →

Posted in activism, bureaucracy, competence, fear | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

An error isn’t a mistake until you refuse to correct it

Posted on February 20, 2011 by dwighttowers

In the worms-in-the-Big-Apple movie “City Hall,” which I saw last night, the following quote “An error isn’t a mistake until you refuse to correct it” is ascribed to JFK, whereas the Tinterwebs prefers Orlando A. Battista. And on the subject … Continue reading →

Posted in a little self-knowledge, activism, competence, science | Tagged , | 1 Comment