Black Box Thinking: The Surprising Truth About Success Hardcover – 10 Sept. 2015

If you make a mistake don't wallow on it or make excuses, learn from failures and make improvements. Learning from failures can save lives and improve performance. Nobody is perfect but make sure to adopt a growth mindset and ensure that you learn from the imperfections. There you are save you the trouble of reading the book.

Loved this book from beginning to end. It has many real world examples of both sides - where mistakes are openly used for progress and where mistakes are hidden and the effects this has. A variety of industries are covered (Sports, Healthcare, Aviation, Crime etc) which really opens up the idea of marginal gains to an easily digested subject to anyone. I learned a great deal from this book as an HR Manager in a technology office but also as a Club Operations Manage in a Youth Football Club. This really applies everywhere.I gave my daughter a long speech after reading this book as I feel its also good for resilience and not being afraid of making mistakes but embrace what you could learn from it.Recommend this book to any and everyone!

Mr Syed has written a book that looks at everything as a positive challenge but more importantly rejects the idea of failure correctly and considers it an opportunity for learning. Coming from a healthcare background, I found that he was spot on with attitudes, although perhaps makes less of the culture to seek judicial penalty and the effect on health professionals. Nonetheless, this is not a criticism as his well-labelled case histories amplify on the progress made as he follows each story up. It is open, honest (from those he has interviewed) and have been willing to share their experiences. There are tragedies within some of the stories that do not fail to bring an emotional tear. Any weakness in the book does little to deviate from the main thrust, and this review is not about critiquing this excellent work for its literary design, although it is well written and has an engaging style, it is just a little long in a few places. But of course, one should even consider this an opportunity. If you fail to come away persuaded to change your attitude toward your own short comings, then it is not the author's fault.

Very interesting book but a little frightening at the same time. (Re: medical and legal professions)There is much in here that businesses and government should learn from. Also applicable in many ways to personal endeavoursWell written and researched, interesting, compelling. One of my 2 Best non fiction books of the last 18 months.Highly recommended

All of his writing is perceptive and insightful ( as his his work on Radio) and this was no different. A paradigm shift in 'encouraging people to learn from their mistakes' is happening in a number of areas of modern life ( including business, commerce, entertainment, sport and education) and Syed's book should be compulsory reading for all who seek to bring this about. Recommended.

This is one of those books that makes me step back and ask myself questions. It challenges the way we deceive ourselves about our weaknesses and failings. And it shows how even in failure we can shape the building blocks for success. I suggest you check the meaning of 'iterate' before you start as Syed uses it with irritating frequency, as he also does with 'evolution'.

A highly illuminating book about understanding error and the dangers of the blame culture. I remember realising as a young engineer that if it took me 4 days to build a prototype then the production machine, built by someone less skilled than me in 4 hours was never going to work so well. I had to work out where the inaccuracies would be and allow for them.

I thought I was in safe hands with this book because of its phenomenal reviews. Its not terrible but its just okay. Let me save you time and money - "Mistakes allow us to be more successful in the future if we learn from them. If you examine why something failed, you can use that information to change your way of thinking/doing/etc to change future outcomes from failure to success" This book is literally just example after example after example. All of which are semi-interesting stories to read - but all of which end with exactly the same summary - "See! Learn from your mistakes!". Having said that - Chap 4 was interesting in light of today's political climate - explains how and why people operate off of "alternative facts" and refuse to change their opinions even in the face of undeniable evidence.