Why we analyze our failures more than our successes

We tend to be more analytical about our failures than we are about our successes. A quick thread on why and what you might be missing as a result

Why do we do it? You're probably familiar with Fundamental Attribution Error - our tendency to attribute someone else's actions to their character while attributing our own actions to our environment. He was late because he's lazy. I was late because traffic was bad.

I believe our tendency toward FAE is a reason we deeply analyze our failures - we are looking for causes outside of ourselves. If we're unwilling to admit we personally contributed to a bad outcome and dig into why, our analysis will be incomplete.

The flip side of this is why we don't stop to analyze success. It's because we're amazing, of course! Why look at external factors when it's clear our brilliance is what delivered victory?

But here's the thing: we analyze failure because we say "I don't want that to happen again." And yet we don't analyze success in the same way even though we want success to happen over and over!

Two takeaways: a) Make sure you are including yourself as a possible cause for failure. Be honest about your shortcomings. b) Analyze your successes! What factors, internal & external, contributed to a great outcome? We can't reliably repeat what we don't understand.