FACES OF FAILURE

September 5th, 2018

Failure is often a huge, demoralizing experience that feeds our insecurities and cripples further action. 

For the scientist who has hundreds of experiments lined up to probe the truth of some given piece of matter. . . how is an unexpected result on experiment 256 taken?  Like an emotional trauma?  Doubtful.  Scientists would get nowhere if this was the case.  Most likely the reaction is:

“Huh…interesting.”

Impersonal, dispassionate… if anything, such a reaction hints that curiosity has been invoked. 

An unexpected result implies that the subject goes deeper than previously thought.  An unexpected result shows that there is more to learn.  The map is not big enough, not detailed enough. . . There is more enjoyable work to do.

Failure enters our lives in many ways.  Those who interpret it best do not even call it failure.  Some actually enjoy failure for the simple reason that it allows them to try again and improve the method, the action, the strategy, the thinking.

We have a habit of becoming so emotionally attached to what we attempt, and what people might think of our result that we often blind ourselves from the true value of the result.

The scientist sees simple feedback from the universe.

The first time entrepreneur might see a destroyed future.

Which face of failure might aid the other?

It is not some emotion inherent in reality or the result that coats it with identity.  It is our perspective that coats the feedback with emotion.  If we test reality with our understanding and our estimation of what can be accomplished, reality will give us feedback.  Our perspective of that feedback is everything.

If our perspective is agile and open, we can be quicker to see a new way.

If our perspective is emotionally plump, we are fragile, and taking the next step after some ‘failure’ might….never happen.

Moving forward is imperative.

What face will we put on failure?

If we want to move forward?

JUST SHIP IT

September 4th, 2018

When Batman started he was just a guy in balaclava and a stapler as a prop gun.  He didn’t wait for the suit, the car, the plane in order to start.  Even though he had the RESOURCES for all that stuff… getting started was more important than starting perfectly.    He was more concerned about having an impact as opposed to having the perfect impact.  Once he saw that impact was possible, he started LEVELLING UP his game in every way imaginable.

We all have a laundry list of things that we’d like to do and accomplish.  Unfortunately this laundry list is usually populated by ideal versions of accomplished goals.  The jump from nothing to perfect is not just intimidatingly large - it’s impossible.  Best to put the minimum viable effort into the project and ship it in some way, shape or form.  Shipping that first ITERATION does not have to be like Steve Jobs up on stage talking about the newest Iphone.  Remember, that guy started in a garage, and the circuit board was drawn on a piece of paper.  Shipping the first iteration of your project, dream, idea can be as simple as showing a friend.   Shipping the idea usually refers to a single event.  The moment when you open it up to the world.  But there are multiple degrees of shipping an idea.  Show a friend.  Show two.  Get feedback, ITERATE and ship again, perhaps with a quaint little google adword campaign.  Get feedback, ITERATE and ship again, perhaps with a larger audience. 

Remember though, the first audience we ship to is ourselves.  Best to be honest and sincere and admit that we truly have no idea how our idea will pan out.  Best to ship again, to a larger audience, one that is bigger than our scared little mind’s eye.

This episode references Episode 39: The Resources, Episode 42: Level-Up and Episode 121: Iterate.  If you’d like to fully explore these references, please check out any of those episodes next.

THE SUBTLE ART OF THE BREAK

September 3rd, 2018

Take a break for break’s sake, but not for the sake some low-living activity that’ll sap your soul.  Like a Facebook feed.

Apparently Salvador Dali and Benjamin Franklin would hold a set of keys and time the duration of their breaks from creativity this way.  When the hand naturally loosened it’s grip after a couple dozen minutes and the keys fell, this is when each knew to go back to work.

Taking a break is an exercise in THE WELL-OILED ZOOM.

Often we need a break because we are so enmeshed in our work, or a specific problem in the work, that we cannot make sense of our basic orientation or location.  We essentially get lost in a maze of our own making. 

Taking a break is akin to hitching a ride on a helicopter to get a birds-eye-view of the situation.  After that relaxing and lofty ascent, chances are high that when we look at the problem with a grander, more generous perspective, we are more likely to see the solution to our little problem.  Looking down at a maze makes it much easier to solve relative to being in the maze.

The subtle art of the break comes from knowing when to push through frustration, and when to take a break instead.

This is similar to the sunk-cost fallacy that perpetuates a lot of poor human decisions.    It happens when we’ve been standing in a grocery line for a few minutes after debating which one would be fastest and then finding that the one we’ve chosen is slow.  The question becomes: should I continue to wait in this line since I’ve already put in the time waiting, or should I PIVOT and switch to a different line that is faster even if it has gotten longer?

If we translate this back to our efforts regarding some project or some particular problem we find ourselves hung up on, we might come up with a flexible formula that we can test for effectiveness:  perhaps we PERSEVERE with a problem until we have felt frustration for fifteen minutes with the understanding that if no BREAKTHROUGHS occur during that time, then it’s time for a break. 

The other side of this formula would have to dictate that we must continue to work on the project or problem while feeling frustration for a certain amount of time.  Otherwise, if we took a break at the slightest feeling of frustration, it’s likely that we would simply constantly be giving up on all the things we attempt.

We might think of resistance training at the gym as an analogy.  Too much weight can cause damage, and too little does nothing.

This episode references Episode 54: The Well-Oiled Zoom, Episode 72: Persevere vs. Pivot  Episode 116: Breakthrough the Cloud Cover.  If you’d like to explore those references more fully, please check out any of those episodes next.

A LUCILIUS PARABLE: WEIGHT OF QUESTIONS

September 2nd, 2018

An old Lucilius sits beneath a grand tree in his garden, remembering when he planted the small seed.  An attendant to the old teacher brings in a visitor through the garden to the old teacher.

“Lucilius,” says the attendant, “this one has travelled from very far to ask you a question.”

Lucilius kindly nods and the visitor approaches, while the attendant retires to another part of the garden to pick herbs for the night’s meal.

The attendant listens to the visitor speak to Lucilius and ask their question.  A silence follows.  A silence the attendant has known well during his time in the garden, a silence where he feels he can hear the old teacher think.  But the silence draws longer, and the attendant hears the visitor, confused, ask another question.  The same silence follows, but it does not end, until the visitor, frustrated, asks Lucilius yet another question.

Lucilius’ attendant turns to see the old teacher staring off, paying no mind to the visitor, and worries if the teacher has finally begun to descend into the difficulties of life’s end.

The visitor asks another question but soon leaves, frustrated.

The attendant watches after the visitor, then, as he approaches the teacher, he sees the same clear focus in the old man’s eyes and knows the man is still as much as he’s ever been.

“You have answered so many questions for people who have sought out your counsel.  Why did you not answer this young girl’s questions?”

Lucilius smiles, looks to his good friend.

“How rarely do I give an answer that is not simply another question?  I listened to her questions and it was clear from her questions that she does not need answers.  Her questions are already moving in good directions.”

REGRETTING CATEGORICAL MISTAKES

September 1st, 2018

While the original human super-power of language has an infinite capacity for growth by adding words and categories which may increase our agency and possibility as people, the resiliency of words and the categorical prisons they form can create prisons for the mind.

The word ‘mistake’ is a good example.  While the word may be very useful while making a movie and a particular ‘take’ of a scene can be flawed by an unexpected interruption or other myriad mistakes, and therefore require a retake, life does not allow us the opportunity to stop, rewind and retake.

And yet we use the word where it is not perhaps helpful.

For a moment, think about a life where the word ‘mistake’ did not exist.  Anything that we previously categorized as a mistake would have to be re-categorized as something else.  Is it possible that we would find a healthier category for the events, decisions and actions that we had previously labelled as mistakes?

The word ‘Regret’ falls into the same category.  What would happen if we simply did not have this category available when we think about how to interpret our life’s past?

Is it possible that the fear of regret holds us back from taking chances and undertaking endeavors where we might fail?

If the concept of regret was unavailable, would we have a greater sense of freedom?

Does an infant regret trying to stand up when it falls for the hundredth time?

No, and a big reason might be the unavailability of the concept.

Indeed, it may be a mistake that we created the category of ‘mistake’ and ‘regret’ in the first place.

While they might be useful for explaining some feelings that we experience as humans, their usefulness probably does not equal the damage done by such words when they hinder our agency.

Just as we have the CATEGORICAL AGENCY of creating new words and new categories that might expand our agency, we must remember that we have the ability to reject categories that have been handed to us from our ancestors.

It brings a whole new meaning to the cliché phrase of ‘living without regret’ if we think about our life without the concept of regret.

In this way we can actually fix a mistake in language

and move forward without any need for a retake.

This episode references Episode 139: Categorical Agency