[zaidf]

Actually, I'm not sure you can call this "suffering." Having a healthy dose of confirmation bias can be the difference between trusting your instincts and giving in to naysayers(much of the world).

Opposite extreme of confirmation bias is going by research and the written laws. And we know very well the limits of research.

Obviously confirmation bias is no excuse to ignoring apparent problems and flaws. That is just denial--especially in later stages of a startup.

[fruscica]

My takeaway from the Wikipedia excerpt is that being afflicted w/ confirmation bias equates to being in denial. Healthy denial seems oxymoronic, as denial precludes risk management...

[zaidf]

In that case, I'll say that denial has some role behind almost every big entrepreneur's success or business deal.

[fruscica]

Hmmmm...

As best I can recall, relevant (meta-analyses of) studies of entrepreneurship concluded that successful entrepreneurs are typically very mindful of risk. Amar Bhide's book The Origin and Evolution of New Businesses may be a good source for a survey of the aforesaid scholarship.

[zaidf]

Mindful but not necessarily dictated. In some ways the idea of "risk" itself is a form of denial, no?

[byrneseyeview]

Most startups fail, so anyone involved in a startup has to spend all of their waking time doing something that is probably not going to make them any money. If it's 2 AM and you haven't slept in a few days and the difference between working and not working is almost certainly $0, denial is a competitive advantage.