Anna Karenina principle

== English == === Etymology === Referring to Leo Tolstoy's 1877 novel Anna Karenina, which begins: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Popularized by American scientist Jared Diamond (born 1937) in his 1997 non-fiction book Guns, Germs, and Steel, in which he uses it to illustrate why so few wild animals have been successfully domesticated throughout history. === Proper noun === Anna Karenina principle A notion stating that the success of an endeavor depends upon the fulfilment of several essential conditions, and a deficiency in any one of these factors dooms the endeavor to failure, meaning there are many different ways to fail. === Further reading === Anna Karenina principle on Wikipedia.Wikipedia