Gizmodo: "Praising Failure: James Dyson Talks Vacuum's 5,127 PrototypesSir James Dyson, inventor of perhaps the most recognizable consumer vacuum on the market today, is completely comfortable with failure. He's good at it—failure I mean—but most great inventors are.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Praising Failure: James Dyson Talks Vacuum’s 5,127 Prototypes
Gizmodo: "Praising Failure: James Dyson Talks Vacuum's 5,127 PrototypesSir James Dyson, inventor of perhaps the most recognizable consumer vacuum on the market today, is completely comfortable with failure. He's good at it—failure I mean—but most great inventors are.
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6 comments:
Thomas Edison tried and failed over 2,00 times to make the mono filament used in the incandescent light bold, when asked about his failures he said i just found 2,00 ways how not to make a light bulb , I only need to find one way to make it work...
Trial and error is really how we evolve and how we grow. Life and art is simply a giant example of trial and error and so is the human experience in a very alienated view of it. Dyson is good at what he does because he knows how to learn from his mistakes most inventors had to be good at failures or they will never be able to make anything worth while.
I agree with Jared on the importance of trial and error. I wonder if we're not given enough opportunity in college to make errors. While we can make errors and learn from them, these errors are going to effect our grades regardless. I think this added pressure from grades helps to promote perfectionism. I will always do my best work, but I will always be afraid of failure because I don't want failing grades. I think this is a bit of a contradiction that exists in most college programs. I should be able to fail here, but I don't feel like I'm allowed to.
I agree with Shannon. I wish we felt that we had more freedom to fail. I realize that we are told over and over that we should fail big, but it feels like there is more at stake. This environment is one where we are making impressions and receiving grades. Unfortunately the pressure can get to you. I am realizing more and more this semester that we shouldn't be so hard on ourselves. There is a difference between pushing yourself and cutting yourself short.
This reminds me of something John Wells said. That if you want to be a writer then you should have a stack of your writing about 3 feet high, lots of really bad stuff. Practice, even when you know it's not what you want it to be, makes it easier to make something that is right. Trial and error is the only thing that leads to real, new knowledge. And those hand dryer things are darn cool so Dyson is just proof that it's worth all the work.
Many people have a lot of really good ideas but lack the fortitude and the, well, stubbornness to keep at them. James Dyson (along with Edison, Alexander Bell, etc) are the grand success stories. The moderate success stories maybe got the late great Billie Mays to hock your invention on late night TV. The out-and-out failures either gave up or never had a good idea to begin with.
When, exactly, do you call this kind of perseverance faithful genius or just stubborn insanity? I'm not sure I could keep at something when I'd already failed at it 5100 times. Then again, here I am in grad school making yet another attempt at procuring a career in theatre. I suppose if you love what you do enough, you keep at it, regardless of your "success."
This is a great point to make. Great success can often times only be achieved through failure at first. Learning from your mistakes is one of the best ways to find out the best solutions to a problem. It has been taught to many students that perfectionism is not something that should be aimed for, and I cannot agree more. In this program, it is important to keep this in mind; being perfect on some assignments often means having to make sacrifices on others, instead of just managing your time and turning in work that is good enough. It is great to be in an environment that is supportive of students still in the process of learning.
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