Scott Stevenson(@scottastevenson):Those calling this survivorship bias do not understand survivorship bias. Survivorship bias works in favour of my argument: this is proof that companies can survive having the wrong idea, and your plane shouldn’t go down due to having the wrong idea. Yes there are also companies that pivot to death. But I’m saying having a “force it to work” attitude is a necessary condition, not a sufficient one.

2026.08.16 18:58

Those calling this survivorship bias do not understand survivorship bias. Survivorship bias works in favour of my argument: this is proof that companies can survive having the wrong idea, and your plane shouldn’t go down due to having the wrong idea. Yes there are also companies that pivot to death. But I’m saying having a “force it to work” attitude is a necessary condition, not a sufficient one.

Scott Stevenson@scottastevenson

2026.08.15 15:13

Cursor was an email app. Slack was a game company. Great founders refuse to quit. Mediocre founders say: “We executed well, but our idea was flawed, good job everyone but we are shutting down.” Almost no one gets the first idea right.