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In general, I've found that almost all success at anything worth doing comes from repeatedly failing until you don't. If you fail the first time and give up, yo

by mwfunk 11y ago

In general, I've found that almost all success at anything worth doing comes from repeatedly failing until you don't. If you fail the first time and give up, you probably didn't care enough to do it anyway. If you succeed the first time, it probably wasn't that hard. Fail often and fail hard and be proud of it! It's a sign of progress, or at the very least attempted progress.

autotune 11y ago
I prescribe to the "you must try, try and try, try and try" method of failure as described by Mr. Cliff. If it doesn't work out by the 5th time just repeat the cycle as necessary.
amenghra 11y ago
Failing is good as long as you learn something out of it "fail, learn something and be proud of what you learned".
smitherfield 11y ago
Not sure the last example the author gives of chess-playing programs is a good one though; a task where it is literally impossible to succeed would just serve to discourage even the most motivated of newcomers, I'd think.
lqdc13 11y ago
Or a sign that you should try something else. Not everyone can succeed at everything. Obviously it is best to recognize that as early as possible in the endeavor.
- michaelbuddy 11y ago
  the best story always involves the ones where somebody WANTS to do something so bad that they just keep at it at all costs and eventually make it. Great story but the more common story is somewhere between giving up vs realizing that something isn't that valuable to you (or as fun) as you thought it might be. you realize you don't or probably won't enjoy the process. The no pain no gain model is true to an extent but often a person got a closer look, they can probably deal with the pain, but the gain is no longer all the shiny and worth pursuing. So you must look at the objective with short and long goggles to see if your understanding about it is right. As you do things well they might get more enjoyable with time. Finding a balance where challenge is still there but you're in the zone of craft. Where you know you can make it work and the challenge is something surmountable. The memory of how hard it was to get to that point isn't one of regret or pain. Just learning, and maybe relief.

by mwfunk 11y ago

autotune 11y ago

I prescribe to the "you must try, try and try, try and try" method of failure as described by Mr. Cliff. If it doesn't work out by the 5th time just repeat the cycle as necessary.

amenghra 11y ago

Failing is good as long as you learn something out of it "fail, learn something and be proud of what you learned".

smitherfield 11y ago

Not sure the last example the author gives of chess-playing programs is a good one though; a task where it is literally impossible to succeed would just serve to discourage even the most motivated of newcomers, I'd think.

lqdc13 11y ago

Or a sign that you should try something else. Not everyone can succeed at everything. Obviously it is best to recognize that as early as possible in the endeavor.

michaelbuddy 11y ago
the best story always involves the ones where somebody WANTS to do something so bad that they just keep at it at all costs and eventually make it. Great story but the more common story is somewhere between giving up vs realizing that something isn't that valuable to you (or as fun) as you thought it might be. you realize you don't or probably won't enjoy the process. The no pain no gain model is true to an extent but often a person got a closer look, they can probably deal with the pain, but the gain is no longer all the shiny and worth pursuing. So you must look at the objective with short and long goggles to see if your understanding about it is right. As you do things well they might get more enjoyable with time. Finding a balance where challenge is still there but you're in the zone of craft. Where you know you can make it work and the challenge is something surmountable. The memory of how hard it was to get to that point isn't one of regret or pain. Just learning, and maybe relief.