yeah once you understand this image you'll never really look at the world in the exact same way ever again

yeah once you understand this image you'll never really look at the world in the exact same way ever again. the image represents returning aircraft during the Second World War. the red dots represent bullets. the military generals were thinking how do we reinforce our airplanes. they logically assume that the areas with the red dots are where they need to reinforce because that's where we're taking the most damage right. but there was a very smart mathematician called Abraham Wald who realized counterintuitively that actually we're only looking at the planes that survived. and actually the planes that didn't return probably got shot in the white areas. hence why they're not represented in the current data. in fact the planes that return demonstrate where you can get shot and still return. it's called survivorship bias. it's a logical error where you only focus on those who survive the process. in fact this image has now become a meme representing that logical error. when I first started working in startups everyone was like we need to copy how Google does meetings. forgetting the fact that maybe thousands of companies do the meetings in the exact same way and didn't survive. you also see in the world of exercise. how many of us look at swimmers and say raw I would like a physique like that. I should try swimming but you're only looking at the survivors of the process. the people who have the archetype of swimmer body were the ones who when they first tried swimming were really good at it. those of us who didn't have that type of body maybe you were shorter maybe you were stockier didn't continue swimming. so when you're watching the Olympics for example you're watching people who have survived a long process of elimination.