One of the recent cover stories in businessweek focused on how the best companies embrace failure, That got me thinking about failure and science. I am sure everyone who has ever spent time doing any sort of research knows the taste of failure. If I start counting the number of successful experiments and the number that failed from my graduate career, I suspect the latter would be the greater number, especially in the beginning. I would go as far as to argue that one learns more from scientific failures than from success. Failure in the scientific context means going back to the drawing board and trying to understand what went wrong. It is that in-depth understanding that begets success. Maybe more scientists should be captains of industry, since for us, that understanding and examination of past failure is part of who we are.
Like every situation there are caveats. I can remember times where I should have realized that rethinking my approach was the appropriate path, but the stubborn desire to make something work ended up with a couple of months that could have been better utilized. However, that lesson learned in graduate school has served me well in my professional life. There is nothing wrong with failure .. just fail as early as possible (and don’t make the same mistake twice!!!)
yes, one should fail as early as possible to make the necessary course correction that comes out of understanding. And this requires the ability and courage (sometimes, bull headed) to take decisions quickly - another trait that makes scientists suitable for industry head posts.
Its all about the mistakes stupid!!!
One of the recent cover stories in businessweek focused on how the best companies embrace failure, That got me thinking about failure and science. I am sure everyone who has ever spent time doing any sort of research knows the taste of failure. If I start counting the number of successful experiments and the number that failed from my graduate career, I suspect the latter would be the greater number, especially in the beginning. I would go as far as to argue that one learns more from scientific failures than from success. Failure in the scientific context means going back to the drawing board and trying to understand what went wrong. It is that in-depth understanding that begets success. Maybe more scientists should be captains of industry, since for us, that understanding and examination of past failure is part of who we are.
Like every situation there are caveats. I can remember times where I should have realized that rethinking my approach was the appropriate path, but the stubborn desire to make something work ended up with a couple of months that could have been better utilized. However, that lesson learned in graduate school has served me well in my professional life. There is nothing wrong with failure .. just fail as early as possible (and don’t make the same mistake twice!!!)
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