Nobody likes thinking about mistakes, much less talking about them! And it doesn't help that we call those conversations "Post-Mortems" sometimes. I mean, who died? But people are feeling pain. Those closest to mistakes in modern, technology-driven companies, are "working at the sharp end", and as such, they generally feel the most pain. They are also generally too busy to process what happened, and without support, have no incentive to stop and learn from the event. This imbalance leads to a push to establish a root cause (blame for machines), fix it so it won't happen again (one never steps in the same river twice), and get back to work. Further, this type of response to incidents presents a view from above (aka "the blunt end") that likely includes very little awareness of the cost and risk of the complexity present in the system. However, whether you acknowledge them or not , incidents are a part of life. Rather than look at them as speed bumps to get over, we present them as a stop at the gas station. They're a chance to stretch out, take a breath, kick the tires, and celebrate the unexpected, incredible feats that experts take every day to keep things running and adapt to an ever-changing world.