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I think we should start to seriously challenge the overhype of "fail fast, failure is fine". Ever since the adoption of "Lean startup" methodology, "failure" s

I think we should start to seriously challenge the overhype of "fail fast, failure is fine". Ever since the adoption of "Lean startup" methodology, "failure" suddenly becomes a no big deal to entrepreneur. Making decision is like throwing a Hail Mary that you don't really care too much about the outcome. Yeah I failed. So what? Let's try it again. Let's try 100 more times and we may hit a home run. If you can put a A-class work in front of people, why do you even want to settle on B/C/D-class stuff? The world doesn't, and shouldn't, work in this way. Failure is bad for your reputation, at anytime, anywhere, in front of anyone. There is a reason why nowadays, acq-hire is more and more popular, because it give others impression that, hey, I didn't fail, I sold my business because it's a good deal. Sure, 1 out of 10 cases is like this. But for the other 9? it just helps to cover your ass and avoid putting the tag "failure" on you in your future career. Is failure end of world? Of course not. Does it mean you shouldn't set a high bar, think carefully, plan comprehensively, put as much effort as possible to maximize the outcome? Hell no. Remember, you can only control what you can control. So, whenever you do something you can control, you better do it right. Sometimes you just don't get second chance.

GFischer 13y ago
They way I understand it, most people aren't advocating that. "fail fast" I think embraces: - finding if your idea works FAST. Stuff like Pretotyping. Yes, that part suggests showing something half-baked ("B/C/D class stuff"), to see if it works - example: mocking up something the size of a Palm and seeing if you would carry it around all the time, to validate that hypothesis. Or the modern-day landing page. http://www.pretotyping.org/ http://www.pretotyping.org/ However, once you validated the first part, the MVP does not have to be half-baked... on the contrary, it has to be crafted as well as you can !!! http://differential.io/blog/misconceptions-about-lean-startup http://differential.io/blog/misconceptions-about-lean-startu... But with only the minimal set of stuff the user needs. The original iPhone didn't have cut&paste - do you think it was a failure? Most succesful early-runners do one thing and do it well, and then build on it. "Some people equate the word lean with cheap, and cheap with low quality. They are using the wrong definition of the word lean. "Lean" in Lean Startup is derived from the Toyota Production System, which is decades old. The definition of Toyota's lean is "to design out waste and overburden."" The point is, find out what the customer needs first and fast ("fail fast"), then deliver, but deliver something of quality. With code it's tricky because you're iterating and it might be tempting to keep in low-quality stuff, but even the iPhone iterated :)

GFischer 13y ago

They way I understand it, most people aren't advocating that. "fail fast" I think embraces: - finding if your idea works FAST. Stuff like Pretotyping. Yes, that part suggests showing something half-baked ("B/C/D class stuff"), to see if it works - example: mocking up something the size of a Palm and seeing if you would carry it around all the time, to validate that hypothesis. Or the modern-day landing page. http://www.pretotyping.org/ http://www.pretotyping.org/ However, once you validated the first part, the MVP does not have to be half-baked... on the contrary, it has to be crafted as well as you can !!! http://differential.io/blog/misconceptions-about-lean-startup http://differential.io/blog/misconceptions-about-lean-startu... But with only the minimal set of stuff the user needs. The original iPhone didn't have cut&paste - do you think it was a failure? Most succesful early-runners do one thing and do it well, and then build on it. "Some people equate the word lean with cheap, and cheap with low quality. They are using the wrong definition of the word lean. "Lean" in Lean Startup is derived from the Toyota Production System, which is decades old. The definition of Toyota's lean is "to design out waste and overburden."" The point is, find out what the customer needs first and fast ("fail fast"), then deliver, but deliver something of quality. With code it's tricky because you're iterating and it might be tempting to keep in low-quality stuff, but even the iPhone iterated :)