Comments on: Failure’s Just Another Word for Unsuccessful

By: mara

mara — Fri, 15 May 2009 23:24:47 +0000

The “Respond Eloquently Below” is great! Sorry to post this under this blog entry but I found your site searching for HCI online master degrees. In your archived site you had a post called “HCI Masters Degree — Where Can We Do the Distance Thing? ” It seems like people are still looking for them. Is there an update on it?

By: Matthew Oliphant

Matthew Oliphant — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 22:53:07 +0000

Jen,

That is exactly what I was doing. Glad you noticed. :)

Usually if I don’t finish a draft post within a few days I never go back to it. This time I thought I would just set it live and see. See if it prompted more thinking on my part and if it prompted thoughts in others.

By: jen

jen — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:45:10 +0000

I like the post — thinking out loud about something that’s kind of eating at you. You made sense to me, boiled down: don’t be afraid to try, failure is part of the process. As an artist & musician (and designer/developer), sometimes my failures show me the way.

By: Lea

Lea — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:01:05 +0000

Ah, the power of semantics. I think it’s perpetuated with ubiquitous use of FAIL at any mild trip-up on the web. Basically, associating anything that isn’t perfect as humiliating.

I think the Scientific Method is a good way to start. It encourages to strive for answers, and regards everything simply as results or “findings.” It’s not good or bad; just “is.”

By: Matthew Oliphant

Matthew Oliphant — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:27:31 +0000

This isn’t a well-written post. Plus side is, it’s the web so I can iterate it. ;)

I want to retrain my brain to get out of the habit of kicking myself when things don’t go perfectly. Removing “Fail” from my common, non-sardonic lexicon is a good place to start. For me.

By: Samantha LeVan

Samantha LeVan — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:23:03 +0000

I fail all the time. If we didn’t have failure, we wouldn’t have iteration. I like your point that failure is a negative word. People are afraid of it and there’s the risk of admitting “failure” leading to a poor review or losing a job – a big fear in this economy. Instead thinking of a solution as not being a good fit for the problem might be a clear way to say, hey let’s try another solution without saying, “ohh my idea was really bad”.