Failure Is Required
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- čas přidán 13. 09. 2024
- Has Adam Savage ever been so frustrated with a build he had to stop? What's a seemingly impossible problem that ended up having a very simple solution? In this live stream excerpt, Adam answers these questions from Tested members @micah0bruce and @the_gr8_brandino, whom we thank for their support! What's a project you've had that made you so frustrated you had to walk away?
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Intro bumper by Abe Dieckman
Thanks for watching!
What's a project you've had that made you so frustrated you had to walk away?
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Literally every rocket fuel recipe I’ve ever made lmao. You have inspired me beyond belief, Savage. You are amazing. Mythbusters defined my whole childhood.
Agree totally ❤🔥👏🙌
Powering my air conditioning from the sun solely!
For three decades I’ve been pursuing it with increasing success, next 1 kw I but I’m there during daytime 11/4
But yea four five call it a day
I'm on complete-trash-everything-and-start-over-from-scratch version 3 of the modular synth software I've been developing. Each version got to a point where it was fully functional, but with a different fatal flaw based on how the underlying code worked.
@@solarindependentutilitysystems short 1 kw? I call that profanity power. ;)
Give it a few more years though, increased efficiency will likely close that gap with spare change left over.
The main problem with 'failure' is that we are taught by society that failing at whatever means you are a loser and worthless when the reality is the opposite. Getting over that societal shaming is very hard and one we should be actively working on. Honestly, the (de) Merit badges help.
Not even just shaming, but with some jobs, failure is not an option. You fail? You're out. So it's made a very nervous workforce that are scared to fail since they could lose their livelihood, and makes sneaky people, that when they do fail, lie about it.
I think 'failure is not an option' should be changed to 'giving up is not an option'. There are times when the end result must be achieved, but even then there will be failures along the way, and you will need to find a way around them.
@@jacobcleary4327 That was true in my profession, nursing. We expected people to make low level mistakes, but high level mistakes: wrong medication, wrong limb amputated, wrong gallbladder removed it was found that low level mistakes in the past were hidden.
@@robertbackhaus8911That would be Yode "Do or do not, there is No Try".
I often wonder who "society" is in this case? Because except for the odd horrible mean person or for that odd super ignorant and naive person, I don't know anyone who sees failure as something bad.
Yet, many people still seem to feel bad about it.
To me it shows exactly the opposite. Someone who embraces "failure" and sees it as an opportunity is not only smart, but mostly found a way to shift the feeling of his inner self.
While the people screaming out loud that you're a loser are just insecure and still in denial.
That is THE quote of the year, "Failure is not just an option, it is required."
#70 of the Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries
that's a good T-shirt
Or as Samuel Beckett almost wrote, "Fail. Fail again. Fail better". I think what he actually wrote was better but less pithy, "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
@@GromMolotok I also came down to the comments to say that, and finish it. The option is whether or not to let failure be the last thing you do.
"To be willing to learn, you must first be willing to fail."
Unless you're a surgeon. Right?
@@nickybeingnicky nope, that's why surgeons have lengthy residencies.
@@nickybeingnicky surgeons are in school and residency longer than most post-grad doctoral candidates.
They are given safe places in which to fail and learn - operating on cadavers, silicone dummies, etc.
Things can still go wrong - that's what ER insurance is for.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn...
Nice!
This is one of my favourite phrases - I use it a lot..!
But all the time, you do both.
I love it when creative types actively show project hurdles and how they get back on track.
I paint miniature figures and busts and so often see others completely strip a piece back to its original material because part of the painting isn't looking as they hoped/were aiming for. This just feels crazy to me when you can just make small changes (it's only paint after all) which can trigger something and put you right back on track.
"Failure" isn't failure. It's a pause. And I love that we get to see that happen on this channel.
Your point about just fixing the small messed up section is well taken. When I paint scale models of Starships or cars, I always mix a bottle paint of the same colour so that I can fill in the gaps.
The difference between the master and the student is that the master has failed more times than the student has tried. Perhaps this is a common saying, I don’t know, it’s definitely not something that I thought up, but it is absolutely on point.
I have literally never heard it before but you are correct that it is 100% on point.
this is a saying i have heard before but actually forgot and im glad to hear it again!
"An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field." -- Niels Bohr
One quote that I like to use on this topic, that you might like Adam, is "Success is not the absence of failure. Success is persistence through failure."
Or churchills, “success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”
"Failure is always an option". One of my favorite quotes, and I use it often. "Anything can be a hammer, but a hammer cannot be anything other than a hammer" is a quote I heard or thought of many years ago, which is also very true.
.....I use hammers for non-intended use regularly. E.g. doorstop, exercise equipment, etc... Not the usual small toolbox hammer of course, but still...
I also work as a software developer, though now as a project manager where over half my time is working through others. Our newest hire has taken over the crux of two projects that I have been endlessly frustrated with, and he is now learning that frustration himself. He just had a problem that couldn't be replicated in test or development environments, nor pointing to the test database. He finally gave in and wrote a massive logging architecture for it so that he could diagnose when it fails in production. It hasn't failed since.
At that point all you can do is laugh at the absurdity.
What a great little story. Thanks for sharing
Funny enough, sometimes debugging tools (even logging) fixes some bugs. Usually race conditions. I had a couple of times that printing a variable would "set the correct value" in the variable too hahahahah. I think the mistake was somewhere else and it was just an illusion, but well, it seemed to work that way.
@@sdlion7287 That's along the lines of our guesses for this one. It generates an object with a critical value, uses it successfully, then passes the object to another function and without hyper detailed logging on the production server and database, the critical value was being passed as null to the stored procedure by the second function. But that function could output the critical value just fine.
Obviously, with objects we're setting pointers in memory rather than duplicating the values themselves, but other values are getting through fine. The only logical possibility is that the pointer hasn't set by the first parameter set in the SQL call but is set in time for the second.
the way Adam says bored instead of annoyed is life changing. i started doing this a few months ago and it actually changed my reaction to the situation. instead of "GRRR I'm annoyed" i feel "oh well, this isn't fun but I'm doing it"
i needed to hear Failure is required. i am currently editing my first youtube video. i spent a 3-day weekend on it, and I am starting over this weekend. i didn't fail, i learned how to use the editing software and i made a rough draft, i even learned a couple tricks along the way
One of the many things I took away from the book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" was that when you're faced with a seemingly unsurmountable problem, walk away. For me, sometimes leaving it for the next day, and after a good night's sleep, the answer will come to me. I've taken that to my core and it's a part of my life. It works.
I am reminded of a scene in the movie "Chain Reaction" where Morgan Freeman's character says something like 'it isn't a failure. We just learned another way that doesn't work.'
Somebody taught me that 'mistakes' and/or 'failures' are just learning experiences; if you learn from them, then they're not really negative.
Exactly this! I use this a lot with my junior colleagues when something they are doing doesn't turn out how they expected. We always learn something from it, and use that to improve the next iteration.
I use that quote all the time and forgot where it came from. Thank you
@@user-neo71665 technically, it supposedly came from Edison, but who knows from whom he stole it. (Something about learning 10,000 ways how *not* to make a light bulb.)
I was doing some reorganizing, and I found one of your favorite pencils, and I thought of you. ✏️
I think of failure as an evolution and part of the process.
My latest project went from thought to purchase to repotting, but not just the two plants, but the third plant that I found tucked next to one of the plants that I thought was just a lower branch. Now I have a gift plant. Its not necessarily a failure, but it is an unexpected development that needed a solution. Some failures are unexpected developments.🌱🌱🌱
I don’t know if it’s the delivery or the way I’m receiving the messages, but I’ve been able to apply so many of Adam’s philosophies to my mountain biking & bike mechanic work. Probably a combination of the two. Either way, I’m grateful.
In this video, Adam demonstrates that saying "non-trivial" is such an intrinsic part of his character expression, that the task of saying "trivial" alone, is non-trivial.
Thank you for sharing your experiences. I’m working on a project right now that has me so frustrated I walked away and haven’t gone back. But it’s comforting to know that even someone as accomplished as you has the same moments. It’s easy to forget how there’s always something new to learn, especially when you’ve been working on a project for a while.
Shop infrastructure is my go to when I am annoyed w a project. Whether it’s storage, cleaning, repair (always something broken), etc. Makes me happy and creates a better state of mind to move on w the project.
I love that moment when the blinding flash of simplicity cuts through the chaos...
Some things, in equal parts, I love and also frustrate me about how Adam operates. First off, I love that he has a dedicated, well appointed workspace. It frustrates me and to be honest, gives me intense anxiety, watching him get in a hurry, both because I know he may likely mess up the step he's on or possibly hurt himself. I love that he actually can step away from something to pause for a time. I can't. I'm way too stubborn and bullheaded! I do love that he brings us along for the full process including his mess ups, no matter how embarrassing they may be. It helps me feel more comfortable with my mistakes and not be so hard on myself. For some people, a workspace such as Adams may be a deeply personal and private space. I'm grateful that he shares so much with us, the good and the bad.
You gotta get over that fear of failure and you will enjoy making much more
I tell my daughter "the fitst step in being good at something is being bad at something"
I really love this saying and I keep meaning to learn to cross-stitch or embroidery to make one of those old timey saying crafts, but I keep forgetting to. Maybe I should just buy perler beads and do it that way.
Adam's story about the ramps on a stage production reminds me that I've been on both sides of a "oh! Why didn't I think of that" moment multiple times, just this week.
You're right. We need to remove the stigma of failure and put focus on the boldness and bravery of trying something, innovating, creativity, growth, etc. It's the essence of the scientific method. 1) Do something 2) Assess the results 3) Adjust as needed 4) Rinse and repeat
I'm a retired programmer and I agree with The Great Rendino. I'm also a kit model builder, and oh boy, I've screwed a lot of kits up through the years: "Ups! I've forgot to glue on a piece and now the model is painted." or "Ups! I have glued a piece on the right side but it should have been on the left side." or "Ups! I broke a tiny piece." and the classic: "Ups! I've glued my fingers together." Kit model builders know failure but if we didn't have failure it wouldn't be as nice to finish a model. We grow each time and get better. ^^
I'm a great believer in "nobody learnt anything by doing it right first time". Thanks Adam 👍 🇬🇧
I feel like Adam is exceptionally good at giving advice on these issues. He has a good amount of logical philosophies that can be supported with real world experience and events. Great job!
Have a like, a porn bot copied and pasted it as their own above...
@@Mazorzarch It took all my likes lmao
My work (and lots of my hobbies) involves 90% prototyping.. I try to leverage as much past expertise I gained from successes AND failures as possible, but there is always new things to be learned. It's inevitable that failures are among them.. it's how knowledge is being gained.
Failure is essential to the expansion of human endeavour.
To grow, you have to take some risks, and if you take some risks, you will fail. I'm a serial failure, but my small number of successes massively out shine the many failures.
Failure is an inevitable part of being human, and we all need to get better at embracing it.
Failure is part of any process. Good processes identify failure quickly, giving ample time to correct it.
My last job was excellent with this, “here are 4 things that need to get done today” ok I’ll do this until I’m mad at it, then move on then move back then finish up. Excellent boss!
You can see the velociraptor costume's head behind Adam! The velociraptor costume was my favorite series, sad it's gone.
I too locked in on the JP raptor right away. He built a walkaround raptor? I missed that apparently, my loss. All I could find was a five second peek on a Tested VR spot.
I used to build models of RCAF aircraft for a friend, over 200 in total. I had a few that drove me to the breaking point, whether it was poorly made kits or that the modifications or paint and markings were not going to be up to my standard. As I acquired new tools and materials I managed to complete most of them before he passed away, and now they are on display at the museum he was associated with. I still haven't pulled the trigger on a 3D printer, because it would lead me down a path of wanting to replace all the things I hand-made to detail my collection...
I would have to say that I was taking a break from looking at job interview tips. And watched you Adam, when you said is failure a option or to be expected. Brilliant and so true, must except failure to move forward.
you’re right Adam it really is required
Adam, this is a great story. And a classic example of what a "different perspective" brings to problem-solving. This is the main reason I always want "different" people addressing the problem, not just the "engineers". My example: a chemical plant intends to increase its production capacity. It will require additional cooling/condenser capacity. The initial estimate is $10 million for all the new condensers and overhead piping changes, which will require a plant shutdown of 6 months (An additional cost in lost production). An operator asks "Why not put the new condenser directly on the vessel on the blank which is available but all the engineers had overlooked because it was for a "future" project", which had been canceled. Now the project costs $1 million and each reactor can be taken off-load, one at a time, so only a 20% lose of production occurs. New Perspective.
Love this! I have a challenge coin with this quote:
"Failure is not an option. It is mandatory. The option is whether or not to let failure be the last thing you do" - a quote by Howard Tayler from Maxim 70.
Lol Adam's story about the ramp reminds me of a saying I often live by; "Work smarter not harder." because unfortunately, its always the simplest solutions that fix the big problems 😂.
I had an experience like this recently. I had turned a guitar into a speaker for an art show and it was working JUST FINE up until opening night of course! I COULD NOT for the life of me figure out why it wasn't working! It wasn't untill halfway through the show after regularly trying to get it to work did I figure out the problem. Turns out the battery was dead🤦♂️. The reason why I hadn't figure this out was because there was just enough juice left in the 9V battery I was using for the speaker to power the little red LED that indicated that the speaker was on. So anyways... Work smarter and not harder check your power source folks!
Failure is the best band, and teaching experience, ever.
I am smiling at this, Watching while cleaning my shop to cleanse my mind. After much research and multiple attempts to solve a problem on my current project. I think I have it figured out... sort of.
Failure is always an option... so is trying agian and again and...... great video as always.
palette cleansers are a huge part of my creative process. not just when something is frustrating me, but if I hit a wall or need to walk away or get bored our need to marinate on some thoughts.
This absolutely makes my day. Completely applicable to my yesterday and right as I am reflecting, I watch this. Fantastic.
I've said it many times,
Knowledge is learned from books or schools, and tells us how to do everything right...
Wisdom is learned from the experience of doing things and having everything go wrong...
As a medical educator for the last 20 years I wholeheartedly agree with you Adam. Would you rather a surgeon who has " never" made a mistake work on you? Never failing means you never develop an ability to adjust to changing circumstances.
Failure is an essential part of learning, it teaches you the limits of possibility (or, at least, probability) & is extremely important in the development of resilience; without failures or mistakes you don't learn how to recover from, & learn from them; you don't learn how to bounce back & achieve bigger & better things.
I feel pity for younger generations (I'm 62 ... soon) who were raised with this insane idea that children need to be "protected" from the psychological "harm" of failure because, **WHEN** they fail, as young adults they're not educated in how to cope with failure & many (not all) give up, or spiral into depression, because they don't have the emotional tools to look at what went wrong & how, & to take that knowledge forward to improve their next attempt, & they give up on trying anything they don't know. Those who don't just turn away or curl into a ball then have to struggle learning something that they should have learned as a young child, when they were emotionally resilient - because, well, they're kids & are genetically programmed to be physically & emotionally resilient while they discover the secrets of the world around them.
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." - Albert Einstein
I work in Helicopter EMS. I had a supervisor who said “we have to learn from each other’s mistakes because we don’t have time to make them all ourselves”.
Love the videos. I work in a science/research environment. Almost all of the brilliant minds I am around agree that you learn more from your failures then successes. It goes without saying that you need successes to prove a process, but the development of the process is what really educates you.
I can commiserate with your mental process and frustrations. I really enjoy listening to someone who appreciates the success that is had with failure. We as humans learn with failure and are usually better for it. Just because it's not the intention doesn't mean you're any worse for failing in any process. What makes you is learning from and striving forward. Thanks Adam for another real life video.
Without failure rubbish bins would not have to be as large!
God, what the one comment said about s/w devs approaching difficult problems only to realize, once they truly understood the problem, that it was actually very simple to solve, is _so_ true. I've spent decades of my life doing exactly that. A happy programmer is a programmer deleting unnecessary code because they've realized they were overcomplicating things. It's kind of flipping Marie Kondo's method around: if you can discard it, it will bring you joy.
People, please look up Adam's defcon talk from many years ago about failure. Its so good!
Its informed my view of failure. I have 2 adages about failure that i live by. First is, fear of failure equals fear of success. Second is, if you're not failing, you're not learning.
Wordplay is essential to master! I went to the doctor for my annual checkup and had a good report. During the visit I mentioned some left knee pain and said it was getting better. The doctor asked if I wanted to see an orthopedic and I said no. On the report he said, "Patient refused orthopedic visit." No, I declined a visit. A refusal would be the doctor recommending the visit and my saying, "No! I'm not going..." That is refusing. Words matter! In this case changing our mindset about mistakes from "failure" to "spontaneous iterative step" would help. Or, "Oops is always an option." Or, "Just another step forward."
The point about experience and failure is absolutely true. I’ve work in my company for 36 years and have quite a technical role. When I’m asked how I know as much about how things work, my simple question is I asked a lot of questions and made a lot of mistakes….
You nailed it Adam
For years I have lived by my three "oh sh_t" rule. I can walk away feeling ok when I obey that rule.
Could you please explain your rule? :)
You have to be able to embrace failure if you want to be any kind of maker. It's going to happen.
The difference between a master and an apprentice is that the master has already made all the mistakes that the apprentice has yet to make.
Every mistake is an opportunity to learn something. A new technique. A better understanding of how you think about the work you do. If you look at any failure as an opportunity to learn or grow it stops being a frustrating and degrading experience. You still get frustrated and annoyed with yourself, you may never get over that, but at the very least you need to learn to frame them in a way that mistakes are not traumatizing. That's why some people quit making is because they traumatize themselves with their own mistakes. Looking at them as opportunities can prevent that.
Hi Adam. Slight tangent from this vid.... I just realized, for your Vault Door, you didn't have to reduce the thickness of the door, you could have fitted the centre Hinge plate the other way around, as in, it places a gap between the plate and the door, that way you pull the door out, straight, then when the door and plate touch on the left side, you open the door "normally".
I know that description isn't particularly very good, but I can't put photos here.
demerit badge idea for when you disassemble or demolish something way further then what was necessary or maybe something like accidentally adding steps or complexity to a simple task
Learning to fail is important!! It is amazing how many high schoolers are afraid to try something new because they are afraid of failure. I run a robotics team and we absolutely showcase our failures after we learn how not to do something. The amazing thing is we have fonder memories of our failures over our big wins when we stop to reflect.
Growing up I was never taught how to fail, when in school you were taught failure meant you were stupid, youll get held back, and youll never achieve anything. I had panic attacks of failing assignments, its given me a massive inferiority complex now that im slowly working through. So I thank you for this advice. Ive slowly learned now its okay to fail but it takes awhile to heal deep seated issues.
In the late 1970's the two of us seniors on the lighting crew for the high school variety show poured all our energies & skills into making sure all the other acts were perfect. That left no time for us to rehearse our own highly anticipated special FX grand finale. We had chosen to do a lighting spectacular to a recording of the school chorus reading of The Creation in Genesis. All the other acts went by w/o a hitch - perfect - naturally. When it came to our own light show w no rehearsal - disaster struck.
With zero plans I said, "OK Dan - we're just going to wing it. Kill all the lights [blackout] and cue the tape"... "In the beginning..." when it got to "Let there be light!" we just hit all the floods full on. Then further creation - we added some thunder to the sound track and began flipping lights chaotically in every which way - simulating lightning etc. Then the Earth was made - OK Vern, "Fire up the hand controlled spot - give us some blue gels and and ????" Damnit - several gels got jammed together - disaster was eminent - I quickly darted over to the spot and grabbed the main focus handle and twisted it way out of focus! What was left on stage was a beautiful blue-green banded soft glowing orb - "kill the floods." We let the recording run the rest of the way and did NOTHING further!
After the show we had teachers and classmates running up saying, "That was awesome!!!" "You guys must have worked forever on that". We never said a thing. I will always remember that moment. The expectations were running so high they just believed it was going to be something spectacular! This was the greatest lesson in theater/entertainment/art. Behind the scenes shit is going wrong all the time - it's how a skilled crew can react 'in the moment' that really makes a show! That whole performance was nothing but a huge failure - turned around 180 degrees! I realize now so many years later - it truly was divine intervention - no other explanation - period.
As an artist, inventor, designer, musician I have learned to recognize 'mistakes' & utilize them as 'style'. Let it be.
A project that I worked on that was total flail while doing my BA. The assignment in a sculpture class was to make a box make of plywood (added art greeblies). I went with a storage box for a friend with added bits on the outside. I messed up the joints as I didn't know the table saw blade was out 3.5 degrees from straight. After three mess-ups I left class and after a night of thinking about it I reset the sawblade the following day. Worked like a charm... only ruined 5 cut to size pieces >.>
Sometimes you just need to walk away to get a clear the mind.
There's a chapter in Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman when he makes the exact opposite point about failure. His first art (pencil work) show was a great success, and a friend of his predicted he'd never do another because he hadn't failed enough in the first one. His friend's prediction came true. There is, in fact, something psychological about failure. Meanwhile, I've built up two fun stories about the simple solutions, myself. First was in a summer internship at Los Alamos Labs, where I was standing between two PhDs trying to get a laser weapon to work. I was, of course, the one who had most recently had the basic optical physics course, so I was the one who figured out it wasn't complex geometry but rather the wrong mirror at the end. Second, I was with a group of guys drinking beer and pulling a transmission, and after they literally bent a titanium wrench trying to loosen a bolt they all went in for a cold one. I stayed out for another few minutes and then, scrawny as I was compared to these guys, walked in with the bolt in my hand. It was a left-hand thread.
In my working life, most of what I did was working with doctors and medical staffs. Not meaning to scare anyone, but they screw up fairly regularly. It is part of the process, and inevitable, because of the huge variability of the human body. Little things like a certain number of humans being reverse symmetry left to right (that is, stomach on the right, spleen on the left, etc.) What I learned is not to ask a doctor how many of these procedures they have done in their career, but how many this week. Just like building something, when you do many, you get good at it. A good doctor knows how to do the procedure. A great doctor has experienced the things that can go wrong, the mistakes that inevitably happen in a 400-step procedure, and what to do to fix them before any harm occurs. We all need to approach things that way.
SUPERVISOR BUNDLE? PERFECT, GENIUS- I need a set
Your defcon 17 talk is one of the reasons I went back to school for an associates in electronics
“Side project”…..lol….do they exist? Absolutely love these videos. Thanks for sharing a huge part of your life!
When I used to teach photographic arts, I used to make a point of explaining/showing the things that could go wrong and then brainstorming with the class as to just how precisely wrong they could safely do something and then let them do it. I found that encouraging people to do things wrong at the start was actually much more effective than overloading them with precisely how to do it correctly and it gave them tools to recognise when things were going weird. It encouraged them to play rather than to focus on the techie stuff. I also personally learned quite a lot from students trying weird stuff just to see what happens.
It was very much the concept of 'Lets get the failure part out of the way so you can see what happens when it all goes wrong and how easy it is to fix.' I've been making stuff for a long time, and there's always a point in any new build where I just have to throw ideas at a wall and see what sticks the landing.
youre awesome
I'm a 2:00 through the video, and I'm reminded of the axle pole vault.from "Mythbusters". Days of nothing but hard work and fail, and those are the bits that were acceptable for TV. My takeaway from that epsiode was
1. if you guys, with your combined skills, approaches, and experience fail, so can I
2. a shower helps clear the flow of the mind. a lesson a keep real learning
But, advice I try to pass on is:
1. failure is only the end if you don't try and learn from it
2. if you never fail, you aren't challenging yourself
My favorite rebuttal/twist on "failure is not an option" comes from a webcomic, of all places. Schlock Mercenary, specifically the in-universe "Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries". Maxim 70 states "Failure is not an option, failure is MANDATORY. The option is whether or not failure is the last thing you do."
If you legitimately never fail at something, you're either extremely lucky or you aren't trying hard enough to truly succeed.
That so reminds me of a problem one of our customers had with a job.
We machined the acrylic aquarium windows for the largest aquarium projects in the world including The Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans, Atlantis, and all the aquariums seen in "Star Trek; The voyage Home". Star Trek The Voyage Home showing such an aquarium, and the polishing of the windows was made before I began with the company.
We received a 62" lopsided bowl we were told was to be for the nose of a small research submarine. I said "That's cool.". Due to a silly mistake of the engineers of the project it was delayed for around, if not over, two years. The customer visited it like a handicapped child in an assisted living facility. The engineers and my company owners standing around it sadly shaking their bowed heads, and then we wouldn't see them for six months.
The submarine project. The bowl was lopsided because they made it in a wooden mold that they spun to make the bowl shape. The acrylic sloshed as it spun, and hardened. Pouring the acrylic into wooden molds is the standard way of casting slabs of the acrylic for the aquarium windows, and cutting polygons from slabs to make port holes for the aquariums. We would machine the castings.
One day I'm walking passed them on their visit, and they call me over to help them out. I ask what's the problem. They ask why I think there's a problem. I point out it's been here for two years. They say it's because they can't figure out if the casting will make the part. I ask for the print. Alarm bells go off because they respond as if they didn't expect me to ask for the print. I even had to wiggle my fingers to prod them to give it to me. I'm thinking real fast now. I know I'm going to blow their minds by solving the problem fast. Have to be fast or now having the key they might see the solution. I know as they give me the print I'm looking for the diameter, and thickness dimensions. They're 34, and 9 inches. In 2, I swear, no more than 3 seconds I say it'll make.
Their heads EXPLODE! Their mouths explode. "wadayamean?, howdaya? 2 years we couldn't..." I say "Calm down, calm down.". I explain, " See it finishes at just 34 inches. It's 62 inches now. See it'll make right?". "Can you prove that?" they ask. Puzzled they haven't understood it yet. I say "Uh, yeah sure. Ya gotta tape measure? Mine's over there.". Only one of them even had a tape. I pull out 31 inches, and explain, "The print says 34 inches, the tape has 31 inches plus 3 inches for the box is 34 inches. Right?". They all agree. I bend down, and place the 34 inch tape in the 62 inch bowl, look up, and say "it'll make see?". They say "What about thickness?". They still haven't got it. I push the tape back in to 6 inches. I show the print, and say, "See it calls for 9 inches. 6 of tape, and 3 of box is 9. Right? ". They agree. I bend down, and put the 9 inch tape in the 12 to 14 inch thick casting of the bowl. I stand up, and say "It'll make. RIGHT?". They say "Ooohhh". I say, "In fact we can probably cut most of the overstock off with a chainsaw". Their heads explode again. "No, no, no. We're not gonna cut it with a chainsaw!" I say, "Sure but you don't have to make the casting like that.". I explain, "Just pour them in a slab, and cut 6 sided polygons like we've been doing with hundreds of portholes we've been making for years. It won't be much more waste to cut off than we get making them. Nothing like this bowl." they say "Yes, yes, yes.".
That got the project running.
The testing of the completed "Research Submersible", Deep Flight 1 (production models are "Tourist Submersibles") was shown in a TV news report. Because of the delay the testing was being done as the Star Trek Enterprise opening montage of "research vehicles" was being composed. A montage of historic research vehicles of the twentieth century including Da Vince's wings, the Wright Flyer, The Spirit of St Louis, the X-1, the X-15, Apollo 11, and the Space Shuttle Enterprise rollout. That's how the clip of the news report on my sub, nose window front, and center, got into the montage as the last built real manned vehicle before the last built real vehicle, the robotic Mars rover "Sojourner". The montage continues of the then proposed future International Space Station, the fictional advanced single stage to orbit space shuttle, the first warp drive space ship, and the Enterprise NX-01 in the opening of Star Trek Enterprise.
My epiphanies always hit me as I was merging onto the freeway, heading home and I had to go 2 miles to turn around, go back and do the thing while it was crystal clear in my mind.
Success is getting up one more time than you fall down. Failure is everywhere, in everything. Learning to embrace it will expand your making!
The first attempt is usually what sewists call "a mockup"--sometimes the mockup is wearable, sometimes it's far enough from the intended result to be exclusively a learning experience.
And sometimes you need several mockups before you make the version you are happy with--at that point in your making journey. Because it's always possible to come back and improve, or just change something to better suit different needs later.
In general one should always practice before doing stuff. Trying to make a fine box through woodworking? Make an (or more) example box to learn how it works first. And they don't need to look that pretty or be quite as big as the end result. Same as with your mockup for sewing. Taking 2 hours to make a mockup can save 5 hours when making the actual item.
Or as an adage in software engineering goes: "It's only once you've finished the project that you know how you should have done it from the beginning"
I'm watching the Mythbusters "There's Your Problem" compilations on Amazon, and one of the car-crash experiments is pretty interesting.
It's about a math correction the fans sent in. Apparently Jamie said two cars colliding head-on at 50mph was similar to hitting a wall at 100mph, and the fans disagreed. So the show tested it and found out the fans were right.
I understand what Jamie did, though. He mixed two statements together.
Two cars (with the same mass and speed) colliding *is* like hitting a wall.
It's also like one car traveling at 100 mph hitting a *parked* car of the same size, I think.
Jamie just tacked the speed from one scenario onto the other scenario by accident.
I always think that the best way to think about a process is that you either succeed or you learn. Failure is the process of learning. Success is showing the extent of your current knowledge.
We treat failure like it’s failure and it isn’t. It’s the successful achievement of what’s not wanted.
Despite Edison being a hack in a lot of ways, one of my favorite stories that I've taken inspiration from has been when he developed the light bulb. He supposedly had to try two hundred variations of electricity, filament, spacing, and the gas inside the bulb before it was considered a success.
When asked by a reporter how it felt to have finally achieved his goal after failing two hundred times, his response was "I never failed; it was a two-hundred step process."
This combined with watching Adam on MythBusters growing up has really helped me not just as a creative, but in my life in general. Every time I fail when designing or working on something and it doesn't work out the way I thought it would, or there are unexpected complications, the frustration is tempered by the idea that I'm closer to finding a solution that *does* work.
At the makerspace and my job (designing things for escape rooms and theatre) I've had the following conversation dozens of times over the years:
"Did you figure it out yet?"
"I found two more ways that *don't* work!"
Agreed much to learn from failures 💯👏🤘👍
The 'bungle bundle' for the 25 demerit badge bundle! :D
Your ramp story reminds me of a Murphyism I read years ago: "Inside every big problem is a little problem struggling to get out."
computer programming projects are allways full of stuck points where many times there is no reference, you have to figure it out, use diff approach, or forget the feature and move on. Sometimes its a day, sometimes its a year before i try again. I have often overthought a coding issue and the solution was so simple.
In the wrong state of mind…yes. That’s the time to stop if you have that option. Totally true. Give yourself the option of failure and embrace it. That’s when we learn the most. That’s when growth occurs.
I've told a lot of people over the years that the biggest reason I got into computers, and later into a job where I write code and build systems all day, was the marginal cost of failure. I could test and experiment with the worst possible consequence being that I needed to wipe the machine and reinstall the OS from factory media. I didn't have to ask some disappointed, frustrated adult for money for new materials having ruined the previously provided ones.
These days I do try to work with more physical materials though, just because I can more readily soak the costs and it helps round out my understanding of the world.
This brings to mind a quote I like from the Fab Rats channel... "We do it nice because we do it twice".
Sometimes calm, cool, and collected saves the day…and experience helps too. Been there done that.
Or being lazy helps because who wants to do that much work rebuilding something two hours before curtain.
I needed this today. I was making a cake for my son for his birthday and I got distracted and my frosting broke. I keep some premade containers on hand just in case, but I'm still annoyed with myself that it happened. He didn't care, the devil's food cake and chocolate filling were really good, but I feel like I failed even if I *truly* didn't.
I hope Adam shows us the lamp------ sounds like something we could all make.
My recent failures.
Repurposing a secodnhand grow tent for resin printing. Had issues with ventilation.
Resin printing. My second printbed full of stuff failed half the prints.
I tend to judge people not by how much they screw up, but how they deal with it to fix the problem... (and prevent it from happening again).
I keep over planning my projects to the point of insanity because I don't let myself fail, even though I'd spend a fraction of the time if I just tried and failed a couple of times instead of planning for every possible failure point ahead of time. I really don't know how to stop myself from doing that, I'm aware enough to notice it happening regularly, but somehow can't stop the behavior.
I've had this same experience with video games, if something very frustrating happens, when your working on a very very hard game, or a very complex modding setup crashes and you lose a lot of progress, it's best to just step away and do something else, and it will make coming back to it both much easier and a lot more enjoyable instead of just staying in those biter thoughts!
I was explaining one of "Clarke's three laws" to a teacher a high school. 'The only way to know the limits of the possible is to venture a little ways past them in to the impossible.' I can't tell you the ripping and "how stupid" I was by the teacher and then by students. The thing when you fail is learning not just taking your lumps and moving on.
I find when frustrated with a project and have to call it a day, I end up working out the problem overnight: consciously or unconsciously in my sleep or half awake. Amazingly enough the problem doesn't seem as daunting the next morning.
The youtubers I subscribe to are the ones who EXPECT failure as part of their process. I watched one - a woodworker who will remain nameless - shocked - SHOCKED - when he failed. Then he blamed the team. Actually, his name isn't worth remembering.
JM?
the guy who dropped the desk
@@zachmoyer1849 yep
@@zachmoyer1849 yup
@@zachmoyer1849 yup
Adam, something you might appreciate from RAD and Agile is fail fast and fail often.
fail it till u nail it
A lot of the time, failure, just like success, it treated as the do-all end-all. FAILURE. End of story. Thank you Adam for helping to normalize failure as part of the process.
Failure paves the road to success!
I work with youth serving orgs that focus on maker spaces and we have encouraged FAL walls, (First Attempt at Learning) to help show it’s ok to mess up and others have, you will to and how can you over come it?
Everyone who's ever built something has had to walk away from it at some point, and it's often the right thing to do. If you're struggling with a problem, thinking about something else helps reset your perspective.
yeah