Comments on: Set us some failure homework.

By: Jon Hickman

Jon Hickman — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:36:12 +0000

Oh, also, I don’t agree with his use of the word “fail” but Stef is really into “Fail first, Fail often” so you should try to get him down to talk about rapid development stuff

By: Jon Hickman

Jon Hickman — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:35:24 +0000

As mentioned on Twitter I like the story of “Plan 9 From Outer Space”, directed by Ed Wood, and the way in which his story was romanticised in the Tim Burton movie “Ed Wood”.

Film students watch “Plan 9…” as an example of how not to make a film.
This is Fail working to positive effect.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:55:24 +0000

There’s too much talk of success on this site. Like, you taking failure seriously, or just as a route to success?

By: Julia Gilbert

Julia Gilbert — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:48:39 +0000

Possibly a bit obvious, but the ones that spring to mind are Thomas Edison and J.K. Rowling. Perhaps if you persevere long enough, you can turn any ‘failure’ into a success.

I personally find that lessons learned from mistakes are the ones that are the easiest to remember. We make lots of mistakes on our radio show and learn lessons every week!

I also find that my own definition of success seems to differ vastly from the common perception. For me, success is not about money or status, and it’s definitely not just about work, it’s about being happy. I think that anyone who is happy, whatever their circumstances, is a success.

By: Pete Ashton

Pete Ashton — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:50:13 +0000

I’ve been meaning to write about the more negative use of calling “FAIL!” as described at length in these posts:

http://dashes.com/anil/2009/06/the-end-of-fail.html

http://waxy.org/2008/03/abort_retry_or/

It’s only tangentily connected to the idea of “failure is good” but it’s maybe worth touching on. Are people afraid to risky stuff because lazy people will call them out on it?