What it means to think about past failures

Some people say that thinking about the past is a waste of time because the past cannot be changed. There is a counterargument that it is beneficial to reflect on past mistakes and apply them to the future.

When does thinking about past failures create value in the future?

- [[a past (i.e. a personal history)]] situation $X$ and for a past [[failure]] $Y$,

• In the future a similar situation $X^{\prime }$ is created,
• The status quo leads to a similar failure Y’.
• Can thinking about $X\to Y$ hinder the flow of $X^{\prime }\to Y^{\prime }$?

consideration

• Don’t even think about it because $X$ is too rare for the same thing to happen.
  • Need to raise the abstraction level of [$ X
• The reflection at this point in time, which I recognize as a failure, is already enough.
  • Cases where there is no return on further investment of time.
  • hindsight
  • Consider that it was possible to make a decision to avoid $Y$ at $X$ based on information $Z$ that was not available at $X$.
  • but a meaningless consideration since $Z^{\prime }$ is unknown at $X^{\prime }$.
  • This is due to the predictability of $Z^{\prime }$.
    • Useful if $Z=Z^{\prime }$ or predictable.

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