We surely want to improve the MTBF of a system. If we do, it means it fails less often. But why do we keep saying it is 'bad'? Well that is because the MTBF is a vastly oversimplified metric that sounds like 'reliability' (it isn't) that seems to infect so many reliability engineering activities and analyses that actually get in the way of improving the overall MTBF. Confused? Listen to this podcast.