Can we talk about failure?

The survivorship bias [1] is rampant, especially in the tech/startup world. Huge media brands like TechCrunch talking about the "winner takes all" companies (Google, Netflix, etc.) Everyone loves to talk about the big winners and associate with them. I guess it's human nature.

I'm really glad there are sites like Failory [2] that talk about founder failures (I've seen them on HN front page several times). I'm also trying to do the same with my research project on acquisition channels [3]. I often found I can learn WAY more from people who failed at something and their advice on "things to be aware of" vs. people who succeeded. Many people who failed usually tried 10 different things and know the aspects of what worked/didn't vs. people who succeeded and tried 2-3 things and got lucky in 1.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias

[2] https://failory.com

[3] https://firstpayingusers.com

Behind every success is countless failures.

I think taking the negative connotation out of "failure" will remove any mental barriers for all creative subjects.

As the post says, someone who has not failed has not learned. I wish school systems were more supportive of this in the classrooms.

> I’m not sure if everyone has gone through this, but for me I suffered through thoughts like: Will I be ever successful? Will I ever be happy? Will I ever have another good idea?

These seem unanswerable/pointless, assume whichever is more likely to go in the better direction.

> Was my idea good? Can I have good Ideas? Can I be good at anything?

Thinking about the whys or hows to these might get you somewhere.

My question that wasn't easy to find one/many 'yes' cases to is Have I ever had a truly original idea (not related-to/derived-from anything else) in my life? Good thing success doesn't depend on originality.

> If winning is the only thing, then when you’ve lost, you’ve lost everything.