The biggest problem I have with a typical use of "fail" today is when it's applied to some software or startup that A) effectively solved a problem and B) had m

The biggest problem I have with a typical use of "fail" today is when it's applied to some software or startup that A) effectively solved a problem and B) had many, many customers, but just didn't make enough money, or didn't become astoundingly popular. Using "fail" in those cases totally discounts the engineering work which was definitely successful. But more generally, it's just completely the wrong mindset. How far could you go with web development, for example, if you declared a failure any time your CSS made a really weird layout and you had to type some more into your editor? Problem solvers like programmers are constantly running into things that don't work. You don't say "I failed, but that's okay, I will pick myself up tomorrow and fail forward. This will be a learning moment. Let me call my mom and tell her about it". Instead, you immediately start diagnosing the problem without a second thought.