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As I see it, your options are fear of failure, fear of success, fear regardless of success/failure, or fearlessness regardless of success/failure. Fear of failu
by jpttsn 9y ago
As I see it, your options are fear of failure, fear of success, fear regardless of success/failure, or fearlessness regardless of success/failure. Fear of failure seems like a fantastic choice.
- Anderkent 9y agoWhy does it seem like a fantastic choice? Significant fear of failure leads to not attempting things in the first place; that doesn't sound fantastic.
- jpttsn 9y agoSure it does! I could attempt to fly every time I see an open window. It’s wonderful to fear failure.
- kwoff 9y agoSeems like a "false quachotomy" to me.
- jpttsn 9y agoEnligthen me; what possibility did I miss?
- quadrangle 9y agoFearing some consequential failures but being fearless of non-risky failures and all other sorts of fuzzy combinations that aren't all-or-nothing / black-and-white.
- quadrangle 9y agoThis is all way too black-and-white thinking. You don't have one or the other of these like they are mutually incompatible. You should fear the failure of things that are too risky to even attempt, that's basic safety / risk-analysis. The fear-of-failure that I was talking about is the fear of failing at something that need not have ANY consequences besides the failure itself. To put it another way: you should fear falling to your death when thinking about rock climbing. You shouldn't fear the failure itself but the painful death. Failure isn't worth fearing as a thing itself, only the consequences of failure are worth fearing. If we had to pick one of your options, go with fearlessness. Be scared of actually dangerous things rather than of the abstract experience of failure.
- jpttsn 9y agoI hear that a lot, but I don't buy it. Fearing the failure itself is useful. If failure leads to awful consequences, fearing failure is a shortcut. If it doesn't lead to awful consequences, I'd rethink framing it as failure in the first place. I think I agree with your other point: that's sort of what I'm trying to say. If you know the risk/return of things, you're already in the clear. When you don't, you have four options.
- quadrangle 9y agoI think you're hung up on the semantics (which doesn't mean it's a non-issue, semantics do matter). When people talk about the problem with "fear of failure" they usually mean (at least I do myself) "failure" in the most plain and benign sense. If I am trying to sink a basketball in a basket and I miss, that's failure [to get the ball in the basket that time]. Fear of that failure is unhealthy, period. You seem to be using "failure" strictly for real problematic things and wouldn't even use the word in the case of a simple missed basketball shot. If "failure" as a word to you means something deeper and more profound, something usually associated with real fear-worthy consequences, then (using that semantic approach) the entire recommendation of "not fearing failure" would be reworded as "don't think of normal errors/mistakes as 'failures'". The point is that we agree that fear of fear-worthy consequences and even some buffer of fear of things that risk those consequences is good. That sort of fear is to be respected (even though it may sometimes come up inappropriately). I'm using "failure" in the literal sense where the vast majority of failures have NO connection to any consequences. And I'm using "fear" in the literal sense too. So, while I can have some concern about the possibility of my comment not coming across as clearly as I'd hope, I'm not literally scared to post it out of "fear of failure". Instead, I'm doing my best to be clear, having reasonably concern that drives my effort, and then willing to post and see whether I succeed at reaching you fully or fail to hit the bull's eye in this little thread. Fear of failure isn't needed or helpful here. Fear of failure specifically in a case where I'm discussing something really controversial that could lead to people wanting to rile up an online mob and dox me and ruin my life — that would be an online comment posting situation where the fear is warranted.