During WWII, engineers studied returning planes to see where they were getting shot.
They almost reinforced the areas with the most bullet holes.
Until one statistician said something brilliant:
āThose planes made it back. Donāt reinforce where they survived. Reinforce where they didnāt.ā
The areas with no bullet holes were the real weak spots ā because planes hit there never returned.
Thatās survivorship bias.
We study winners and copy what we see.
But we rarely study what caused others to disappear.
Sometimes the lesson isnāt in whatās visible. It's in whatās missing.
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