When something goes wrong, use this thought process.

Julia Galef is a writer and speaker. She gave the TED Talk “Why You Think You’re Right—Even If You’re Wrong,” which has more than three million views.

1. Don’t assume that you did something wrong. Instead, ask this question:
   “What policy was I following that produced this bad outcome, and do I still expect that policy to give the best results overall, occasional bad outcomes notwithstanding?”

2. Your policies will fail some of the time, and you don’t want to abandon them right after something went wrong.