Re: Importance of Failure
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Date: 02/23/05
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Date: 22 Feb 2005 17:56:25 -0800
jst...@msn.com wrote:
> One type of post I've noticed come up every once in a while is a post
> where some person is informing me that if I don't have everything
> figured out, I shouldn't post.
>
> Another of the same variety, informs me that I should have every
detail
> worked out formally before I dare to put something out in public.
>
> However, in real research failure is part of work, and public failure
> is not as important as wasting time with flawed ideas.
>
> I still like the sports analogy of baseball, and I think a LOT of
> people in intellectual circles just don't get how important lessons
are
> in sports, like how even the best players mostly fail--and VERY
> PUBLICLY FAIL.
>
> Many of you could not handle it. You'd pee in your pants at the very
> thought of being in front of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or
even
> millions of people to try something where you knew going in that more
> than likely you would fail--though I doubt ballplayers actually think
> of that going in--as you believe that the way the world works is that
> the top people, the best people, make it their business to never
> publicly fail.
>
> That's just totally wrong.
>
> The top people, the best people, fail quite publicly, and in quite
> grand ways, over and over again, but other people in considering the
> fantasy of being at the top of their game, believe that the reality
is
> perfection, or near perfection, where failure is avoided at all
costs.
>
> The best way for a ballplayer to avoid failure at all costs is to
quit
> the game.
>
> Some in looking at my many failures over the years have gone on to
give
> me more advice, like I should just quit.
>
> Yet that was years ago. I think telling me to quit is a silly way to
> publicly fail, especially when I can talk about my accomplishments
> since the first people told me, ordered me, to quit.
>
> For over five years I toiled without a major result, and now I have
> four.
>
> These results have a real world impact, though many try to deny them,
> and that impact grows with each passing day.
>
> Now the people who are looking at public failure are the people who
> spend so much time trying to control me and what I do.
>
> I'm more or less, to use another football analogy, like a massive
> linebacker who just keeps pushing forward, with lots of little people
> dragging at me in various ways, fighting to hold me back--and
failing.
>
> MASSIVE FAILURE is often just a way to move forward, as you look at
> what went wrong, where your mistakes were, and try to see where to go
> next.
>
> But I don't pretend that it's some magnificent thing that I do keep
> going--in spite of the orders to stop--as I basically do what I
enjoy.
>
> If you learn nothing else in this life, you should learn that you
will
> always fail at trying to convince someone that they do not enjoy
> something they do enjoy.
>
> I enjoy what I do. I don't like the failures, but I accept that they
> are part of doing what I enjoy.
>
> Some of you will make posts that basically boil down to trying to
> convince me that I don't enjoy what I enjoy, and you will stupidly
> fail, as I do enjoy what I enjoy.
>
> But then again, failure is part of life. Maybe some of you, in
failing
> to convince me, can learn from your errors.
>
> I will keep doing what I clearly enjoy, and take the failures with
it,
> just like a professional ballplayer.
>
>
> James Harris
So what does your father think of all this?
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