43. How To Get Stuck And Stay There

It's just the way it is. Bad luck, I tell you. The devil got me this time. It's always been done this way. Nothing could have stopped it. It's their fault. This was just a one-time thing. We never have enough resources. It was God's plan. The stars didn't align, literally. The Bible said so. I saw it in a dream. The lord showed me. There's no such thing as freewill and so we can't do anything about it. History repeats itself. I'm just not that person. The system is rigged. I'm too old. I'm too young. I will never have the experience or qualifications. Things were better back then. We haven't gone far enough. We didn't try hard enough. I will not understand why. Systemic issues are too entrenched. It's just not meant to be. We're just following orders.

You see failure is not the issue but rather how we explain it. How do you explain when something does not work out how you wanted it to? If your explanation does not allow you to learn from what happened you will get stuck. You will stay there until your explanation changes. 

I think that all failure has to be explained in the form: the reason we didn't succeed is that we didn't know how to and the knowledge of how to is in principle attainable. We don't have it now but we could have it in the future if we do the right thing.
-David Deutsch, The TED Interview