Failure

Failure

We seem to measure failure in various ways. If a building fails to be comfortable or even safe (in minor ways, at least), we tolerate the discomfort or brave the danger of stairs with too shallow treads, even on a daily basis. We accept such things do happen with buildings and so also the exposure to some of their effects, just shrugging our shoulders stoically and going on with our lives. It's an attitude we adopt with quite a few artefacts, from shoes to computers. We may spend endless hours painfully breaking in shoes or trying all kinds of remedies for hardware or software problems - that's life.

On the other hand, failure in an airplane or a medical operation seems unacceptable. One would say that what matters is how critical a failure can be. That a train fails to appear, making the next one too crowded is different from a collision of the two trains. I accept that but also wander about the mathematics of it: is it more dangerous to descend a bad stairway a few times every day or to fly to a holiday destination once a year?

In the end, what concerns me is avoidable failure: like in team sports, I want to reduce the errors I make without external reasons. We have to be aware of why and how we may fail and take steps against it. There's no excuse for not doing so, even if others keep on failing.