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To summarise: "confirmation bias". He's got a point.



For those who don't know what that is, WP says:

"Confirmation bias is an irrational tendency to search for, interpret or remember information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions or working hypotheses. It is a type of cognitive bias and a systematic error of inductive reasoning. These biases in information processing are distinguished from the behavioral confirmation effect (also called self-fulfilling prophecy), in which a person's expectations influence their own behavior."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias


Yes, confirmation bias at play. But I'm still not sure if that makes it OK to title the article "Why CEOs are so stupid" - that's a gross generalization even for this particular CEO, given that there was this one interview where he messed up.


I think the title was satirical. His point is that CEOs are not actually so stupid, we just look at the ones who fail and point out all the stupid things they did, while the successful ones may have done an equal number of stupid things, but we didn't pay attention.


Also alluding to survivor bias, which is the bias that invalidates the vast majority of business literature and coverage.




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