So knowledge grows by subtraction much more than by addition—given that what we know today might turn out to be wrong but what we know to be wrong ca… - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Not seeing a tsunami or an economic event coming is excusable; building something fragile to them is not.

The engineer and historian of engineering Henry Petroski presents a very elegant point. Had the Titanic not had that famous accident, as fatal as it was, we would have kept building larger and larger ocean liners and the next disaster would have been even more tragic. So the people who perished were sacrificed for the greater good; they unarguably saved more lives than were lost. The story of the Titanic illustrates the difference between gains for the system and harm to some of its individual parts.

Life is about execution rather than purpose.