Everybody looks like an idiot when they're in a bad position. Everybody looks like a genius when they're in a... — Mark Cuban

Everybody looks like an idiot when they're in a bad position. Everybody looks like a genius when they're in a good position.

Author: Mark Cuban

Insight: Most of us have probably been on both sides of this without realizing it. You've likely judged someone harshly for a choice that seemed obviously stupid, not knowing the full context of what they were working with at the time. Meanwhile, you've probably also made decisions that only looked brilliant in hindsight because circumstances broke your way. The uncomfortable truth here is that competence and luck are almost impossible to separate when you're looking at real outcomes. Someone might have made the exact same call in two different situations and been called a fool once and a visionary the next time. This matters because we're terrible at learning from it. We tend to rewrite history, crediting smart thinking for our wins and blaming bad luck for our losses, while doing the opposite for other people. We admire the entrepreneur who took a risk and succeeded, without fully weighing how many identical risks failed. We mock the person who made a reasonable gamble that didn't pan out. The practical takeaway isn't fatalism, though. It's more humbling than that: be a little gentler on yourself and others for failed attempts made in uncertain conditions. And be a little skeptical of people who seem to have all the answers. The real test of judgment isn't whether things worked out, but whether you made sound decisions with what you actually knew at the time.