John Ashbery, and Learning from Disaster

We learn so much more from failure than from success. Whether  the subject is companies, airline accidents, bridge collapses, mountaineering, or sovereign state defaults, there is painful learning in studying the precursors, timeline, and consequences of large- and small-scale failures.

In thinking about the subject this morning, I got into a discussion with a colleague where one of my favorite quotes from poet John Ashbery came in handy, so I thought I would share it here.

Like a wave breaking on a rock, giving up
Its shape in a gesture which expresses that shape.
    — John Ashbery, “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror”

Sometimes we only see something’s form in its ruin.

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