Musings

Musings

DirtySciFiBuddha33 Comments

Have you ever talked with someone who justifies their failure with, “I might have failed, but I learned so much.” 

What exactly is it, though, that they claim to have learned?

In my opinion, if failure can’t be translated into future success (or at least comprehensively articulated into why an attempt didn’t work, so strategy can be adjusted for subsequent efforts) then the phrase “I learned so much” is devoid of worth.  It becomes the equivalent of a hollow platitude:  a positive-sounding statement that possesses negative value, because it functions as an excuse to avoid investigating the failure and sharpen thought processes, which only serves to strengthen the problem.

33 thoughts on “Musings”

    • Yeah, but failure that doesn’t lead to success is usually the default outcome, from what I’ve seen. If it DOES lead to success in some way or manner, then I’d say they definitely learned something useful.

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  2. Ugh. I’m an assist. An emergency contact. You tell me the problem, and I come up with the solution. I’m a consultant, not a leader. I don’t know what the eff I’m doing… I’m a lecherous leech, I absorb observations and reprocess them to be calibrated for the present problem. Uuuuuugggghhhhh

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    • Troubleshooting and being to see issues is a valuable but unappreciated skill all by itself. Anyone can come up with a grandiose plan with massive holes in it. Knowing how to fix those holes is rare.

      Ever notice how it makes it easier to see and avoid trouble in your own life at times too? 😉

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      • My life used to be quite blessed, but… I’m of “questionable morals” because black or white, shades of grey, colour spectrum… it’s all the same to me. And people see that as a sign of… disloyalty, somehow. So… thus the “consult” and a lot of tongue biting in terms of “I tried to tell ya” lol
        Nobody likes that. I don’t have to say shit, just be there. And I’m either guilty or innocent. People rarely want to hear the “whole story” because they see it as irrelevant to what they saw before their very eyes! Can’t refute facts with context! No way! LOL

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  3. Other potential hollow platitudes along the same vein: If I only knew then what I know now; we all make mistakes; hindsight is 20/20. I’ve heard all these utterances from mouths attached to faces on skulls encapsulating brains that have failed to learn a thing as evidenced by predictable behaviour.

    Nice musing!

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  4. I think we cannot expect people to apply learnings in real life right away. Some time is needed for internalization. So, I believe people do mostly learn but take their time to internalize the learning.

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  10. Most learn that unless you are a master intern! That all those who attend the external roles have failed in success! They have been cast out to bring in for the house! success is a reflective! They learn their place!

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