Risks Should be Taken Wisely

I agree. I think it is wise to understand you are willing to take certain risks in order to improve and innovate. Sometimes things might not work out. That doesn't mean you don't do what you can to mitigate the impact of things that don't work out.

It does seem to me the "accept risk" (fail fast, accept failure...) folks would be better served to focus a bit more on mitigating the results of failure. Sure accept risks when you determine it is worth taking the risk due to the benefits.

I wrote about this earlier this year: Taking risk, but do so wisely.

Accepting risk doesn't mean failure is good. And it doesn't mean the results of experiments are all blameless. You can do a poor job of taking risks. If that is done, we should learn from it and improve how we take risks going forward. I would also put my focus process over people (what, good and bad, can we learn about how we did this experiment or took this risk to do better experiments and risk taking going forward).

In response to: To Blame or Not to Blame

Related: Find the Root Cause Instead of the Person to Blame - Blame the Road, Not the Person - Respect for People Doesn’t Mean Avoiding Any Hint of Criticism

Remembering George E.P. Box

George Box passed away last week and a long (1919 - 2013), rewarding and productive life. His obituary ends with "a last message from George" (quoting Cole Porter's song - Experiment).

“Experiment! Make it your motto day and night. Experiment, And it will lead you to the light …Be Curious, …Get Furious… Experiment, And you’ll see!”

The full text of the song is quoted in Statistics for Experimenters (a book by George, my father and Stu Hunter on using design of experiments to improve). The song is included in the De-Lovely soundtrack.

If you want to honor the memory of George, contributions could be made to

  UW Foundation - George Box Endowment Fund (link to donate - include George Box Endowment Fund in the box for instructions) US Bank Lock Box 78807, Milwaukee, WI 53278.  This fund was started some years ago with the intention of assisting graduate students. It is a permanent endowment fund, so contributions to the fund are added to the principal and the annual earnings of the fund are used to support the fund purpose. The purpose of the fund is to support activities of the Statistics Department with a primary (but not exclusive) focus on activities of direct benefit to graduate students.  Recipients will be selected by the Department faculty (or their designates) with input from Departmental graduate students."

  Agrace HospiceCare (link for donating online), 5395 E. Cheryl Parkway Madison, WI 53711.