March 21, 2006
From the desk of Jane Galt:Public service announcement
Looks like I'll be giving a speech at New York's Junto on April 6th. The topic will be "Freedom to Fail" . . . I'll be arguing that our cultural and institutional embrace of failure is one of the reasons that American society continues to be the main engine of innovation for the global economy. If you want to see me talk, come on by.
Posted by Jane Galt at March 21, 2006 02:46 PM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound linksInnovation is virtually impossible in an environment in which failure is unacceptable. You are not doing research (and you won't innovate) if you are not failing about 90% of the time; you're doing product development.
If you wish to succeed, "Don't begin vast programs with half-vast ideas.)
Posted by: Ed Reid on March 21, 2006 03:32 PMSeeing the picture linked from there reminded me that you've been neglecting to keep your readers up to date on Finnegan's health and well being.
How is the pooch?
Posted by: Jason on March 21, 2006 04:17 PMI probably won't travel up from Washington to hear the talk, but I have some questions for you:
1. What are your illustrations of *cultural* differences in willingness to accept/embrace failure?
2. How do you differentiate between fear of failure and resentment of success? That is, if a society tries to keep X from falling behind Y, does it represent concern over X or resentment of Y?
3. Where does the cliche that "it is safer to fail conventionally than to succeed unconventionally" fit into your thesis?
Posted by: Arnold Kling on March 22, 2006 08:34 AMOne of my favorite sayings in the space business (in the wake of the movie "Apollo XIII," in which Gene Kranz used the now-famous injunction "Failure is not an option," is the rejoinder, "when failure isn't an option, success gets damned expensive."
That's the story of NASA's space program. And they get failures anyway--they just cost a lot more.
Posted by: Rand Simberg on March 22, 2006 12:00 PMFailure is not an option - it's part of the basic package.
I would suggest that the greatly increased opportunities for failure are what make the various American competitive team sports so much more interesting and exciting than soccer.
Posted by: triticale on March 22, 2006 12:28 PMthose people can get pretty nasty, especially victor. i saw jacob sullum speak there and he said after that if he new what it would have been like he wouldn't have gone to begin with. figured i should at least warn you.
Posted by: warning on March 22, 2006 04:39 PMThe concern for Megan's dog is sweet, and I do hope he's doing fine, but honestly, shouldn't we really be expressing concern for Mindles's health and well-being? How is the old guy?
Posted by: Middle Browser on March 23, 2006 04:44 PMComments are Closed.