Success can breed the false confidence that produces stupidity and carelessness. Chios supplies the closing example: two hundred ships can still fail against one hundred when leaders ignore crew readiness and assume scale makes defeat impossible. Technological or numerical superiority encourages the same error when it becomes a substitute for training, order, and judgment. Ego keeps the conditions for epic blunders alive even after earlier failures are well known.
Notable Point · 3:08:53-3:09:54
Epic blunders begin with confidence and ego
The closing lesson is that naval powers repeat epic blunders when superiority in numbers or technology becomes a substitute for training, order, and judgment.