Was reminded of a book yesterday titled "Military Misfortunes: the Anatomy of Failure in War" by Cohen and Gooch. If I recall correctly (and I may not) they describe three types of failures and three causes of failures:
1. Simple failure 1. Failure to learn
2. Compound failure 2. Failure to anticipate
3. Complex failure 3. Failure to adapt
Simple failure is one failure, compound is two failures working together, complex failure is three together. When airplanes crash it is usually 2 or more failures that in themselves are fairly harmless causing a catastophe.
I was thinking about how this relates to depression. It is usually caused by stressors, any one of which is not overwhelming, but together they are like the straw that breaks the camel's back. Will have to think about this some more.
Looked on line for info on the book but they don't go into much detail. Apparently it was used in the Air War College as a text at one time and is used in some business courses.
