I was struck by this beautiful trending post from a few days ago by my friend—and also my publisher—Mariangela Tentori, who comments on the words of P. Borzacchiello in the book La Parola Magica about cognitive bias.

I found myself here, reflecting—now, with hindsight—on the cognitive traps, the false beliefs, and the poor assumptions that too often mislead entrepreneurs, and that reveal their true nature only when things start to go wrong.

It is a world full of shadows, the one that appears in the cave to the protagonist of my novel, Mr. Rigel, where reality and desire are the ingredients of a cocktail with a dry and bitter aftertaste.
A world where no Budget, no Plan, and no Messiah will come to turn the situation around.

For me, the first bias is the addiction to “best practices.”
A term so chewed up today that it has become corporate mush.
I can’t shake the thought—although I hope this isn’t itself a distortion—that today’s best practices may also carry within them the seed of tomorrow’s worst ones.

Stubbornness, pride, competition, a hunger for leadership, resilience, obstinacy.
Are these not at the root of many successes?

And perhaps of one single, fatal failure.

It is also a subject of contemplation for the protagonist of The Beat of Rigel when he finally emerges from the cave and understands the nature of the shadows.

What do you think?

Corrado Maggi
30.07.25