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# The Stockdale Paradox
- URL: https://chrisenns.com/2020/04/the-stockdale-paradox/
- Published: 2020-04-15T21:11:23.000Z
- Updated: 2024-04-08T23:51:28.000Z
- Author: Chris Enns
- Tags: Uncategorized, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-04-08 17:31, #ichris

In [an interview](https://www.jimcollins.com/media%5Ftopics/TheStockdaleParadox.html?ref=chrisenns.com) talking about his imprisonment and torture from 1968 to 1974, Admiral Jim Stockdale had this to say when asked how he didn't let it get him down or depressed:

> He said, “Well, you have to understand, it was never depressing. Because despite all those circumstances, I never ever wavered in my absolute faith that not only would I prevail—get out of this—but I would also prevail by turning it into the defining event of my life that would make me a stronger and better person. Not only that, Jim, you realize I’m the lucky one.”  
>  
> I said, “No, I don’t.”  
>  
> He said, “Yes, because I know the answer to how I would do, and you never will.”  
>  
> A little later in the conversation, after I’d absorbed that and said nothing for about five minutes because I was just stunned, I asked him who didn’t make it out of those systemic circumstances as well as he had.  
>  
> He said, “Oh, it’s easy. I can tell you who didn’t make it out. It was the optimists.”

*This link / quote post is basically a copy of what John Gruber [posted on Daring Fireball](https://daringfireball.net/linked/2020/04/14/stockdale-paradox?ref=chrisenns.com). I wanted to try it as a test of how easily I could post [to my new CMS I set up for my blog](https://twitter.com/iChris/status/1250178690811453440?s=20&ref=chrisenns.com).*