Thanks for sharing.
The story shows the induction problem which can be applied to investing as well. Like Spekulatius describes now in a separate thread, we have to make decisions on incomplete information and to use best possible process. And, invariably, biases will seep into the process (confirmation bias, recency bias, halo effect etc). Also, a classical potential trap when correlation and causality are mixed.
Perhaps important to underline that scurvy was likely not the cause of Mr Scott's failure to return home. Here's a complementary article:
https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/sites/default/files/butler.pdfAlso interesting to see how the status of "hero" over time changed for Mr. Scott. At the time of his exploits, he was considered a national champion. Over time, it was discovered that, as a leader, he was far from perfect and got a fair share of criticism. More recently, his status has been given redemption to some degree by serious authors who suggested that critics should try to put themselves in the extreme conditions that the explorers were submitted to. Maybe, we should do the same when we retrospectively evaluate how people were dumb before.
For those interested in the topic (South Pole expeditions), the article, that rukawa refers to, mentions Mr. Shackleton as somebody who accompanied Mr. Scott initially. Both became fierce competitors after and led parallel expeditions.
Mr. Shackleton is a fascinating character and an atypical leader.
I had referred to him in a book review that I submitted some time ago:
http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/books/forged-in-crisis-nancy-koehn/msg321901/#msg321901