Defining Failure
It’s been a taxing and flu-ridden Thanksgiving weekend here at Casa de Tieandjeans. In light of that, I’ve been trying to find a comfortable nice for short posts, suitable to days like this one where all I want is a darker room and a warm cup of tea. I don’t link much without significant commentary, in large part because Google Reader USED to handle everything I wanted out of fast link sharing. I don’t generate or deal in aphroisms, and sharing glimpses of my mind’s media landscape* probably won’t do much for my credibility.
I’m opting for the discussion post, which is a bit laughable for the developing blog. But, whatever. Operate as if you’re living the life you dream of. We are what we pretend to be.**
The Seth Godin / Web2.0 / Startup culture suggests that to disrupt an excisting system, the innvoater has to fail early and fail often. The connectivity and data sensitivity of the web should give us the ability to extract the maximum ammount of data from each failed product, and then pivot from the results and try again.
At the same time, districts and schools across the country are engaged in a furious battle through legislation and litigation, to avoid or remove a designation of “failing” from their institutions. It’s tempting to say that “failure” matters more to schools than it does to startups, but that does a huge disservice to the passion and desperation that entrepreneurs carry with them every day.
Maybe the more important distinction one of scale. What would it mean to fail cheaply in a K12 academic setting? What goals can we set for our students and our communities that are so clearly, overwhelmingly important that we’re willing to accept and learn from repeated, ongoing “cheap” fails?
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**Well, looky here! I do come stocked with aphorisms!
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