A negative success: Failure

Do you remember playing Memory as a kid? The game where a pack of cards is spread randomly and displayed face down with the goal to locate and match pairs. There is only one smart move to start: Guess.

This first move is made with the near certain (albeit fingers crossed proven wrong by luck) assumption that it will be an unsuccessful attempt. The first anchor point gets revealed and the game is on. This is an early childhood lesson in the benefits of trial and error. Each error reveals pattern information to improve decision making and increase chances of future success.

Well, that was just a child's game with little consequence but, what of the lessons learned? At what point does failure become a negative rather than a positive process? If the coding in a system fails it means that an unexpected result (possibly no result - which in itself is a telling result) takes place. Investigation and recoding leads to a more robust programme. If testing uncovers nothing, it could mean that the testing process was not effective. Not all the cards were flipped and as we often see upon public release, some end-users flip a lot more cards than others.

But, how to get around the fear of failure?

Fail often - but fail small

Guess a lot, get it wrong a lot, track the anchor points, try again, follow the patterns, learn and use what works and then push a bit harder just in case it might be tested later. Failure after failure after failure. Fail until specialised knowledge runs so deep that every crack, hole and weakness has been investigated, understood and patched so that the energy required to find fault is now monumental.

That is a lot of failing going on but there is also a lot of guidance, personal growth, understanding, experience and skill development. Plus, the important discovery that failure is nothing more than a negative success. Failure helps reduce fault rather than add strength and in so doing, increases durability. Trial and error is a systematic approach to testing that knocks off edges, smooths and refines but in the 'real-world' randomness reigns supreme.

The aim isn't to result in failure, the aim is to strength test an idea, product, system, institution or anything else by applying enough pressure to find fault, repair and develop further than required.

In time, all cards are flipped and memorised with the guess work no longer needed. This could be seen as an investment in the future as each new failure brings success one step closer.

Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]

At the moment, this is how I am trying to look at what is going on here at Steemit. We are trying something new and at the moment, it is hard for many to let go of what they know. With each failure, we flip over a couple more cards and are a step closer to success.

This is a repost as an extension of the post I wrote today on confidence. I am hoping one day posts will be able to have an infinite voting window and increased discoverability as there is so much content that becomes relevant again but locked away in the past.