Almost Perfect by WE Pete Peterson [0] is the story of WordPerfect and how it burned up. I think it was a good example of 80s/90s software startups and think the author, CEO I think, was frank about what went wrong. And it’s free.
Let there be more biographies of failures
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Re: Let there be more biographies of failures
#92The problem with failure is there are infinite ways to fail. So from a pov of looking to reduce my chances of failure, reading about a failure means there are now Inf - 1 ways I might fail, not too useful. Pragmatically reading about success and seeing if I can repurpose their techniques to my situation is far more useful. Where reading about failure is useful is to help remove the general stigma around failure that…
If you read these 13 stories of failed software products that I collected you'll see that they have quite a lot in common: https://successfulsoftware.net/2010/05/27/learning-lessons-f... Also, hanging out on forums for software entrepreneurs, I see people making the same standard mistakes again and again.
can you tell me some of them?
Re: Let there be more biographies of failures
#93Amen! I've found that 9 times out of 10 successful people follow the same advice and believe the same things as unsuccessful people (at least they SAY they do). So it's really useful to look at people who failed yet followed the same advice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias
I think the important bit is to pay attention to what the successful do differently from common sense advice, not the bits that everyone follows. For example, Elon Musk's housing choices when traveling, Steve Jobs' higher education, Tesla's approaches to thinking.
I don't see how that helps either with survivorship bias or with attribution bias.
Re: Let there be more biographies of failures
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's honestly a heart wrenching story. Your bravery to write it as straight as you have is testament to you. You obviously cared a lot about the film and the people you worked with. That will go with you.
Damn, I never thought anyone would read it or care. I very deeply appreciate your comment, and that you took the time to read it. I really hope I can try again one day in the future with actual animators!
I enjoyed your story too. Good on you for going for it! At the very least, you tried!
Re: Let there be more biographies of failures
#95the problem with wanting to write biographies of failures is the same problem with publishing negative results in science: there are too many failures, and too many ways to fail. It's like entropy - there are so many ways to do something wrong that it's not very efficient to learn how to do something by enumerating all the ways you cannot do it. Much rarer is success, which is why it's more worth the time to study. Maybe this is a controversial opinion.
Maybe adjacent failures are worth study - studies of people who very nearly succeeded compared to someone who did, where subtle differences ended up being significant. These kinds of things can create "what to watch out for" kinds of guides.
In addition - what is failure? Was Nikola Tesla a failure? He died broke... but he still invented AC generators...
Re: Let there be more biographies of failures
#96As someone who has failed as a CEO - I can’t write about it, because it would have a bad impact on my former team, who is still working away.
Not only must you find someone willing to document their failure (I am), they have to be free and clear (I am not).
Re: Let there be more biographies of failures
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Damn, I never thought anyone would read it or care. I very deeply appreciate your comment, and that you took the time to read it. I really hope I can try again one day in the future with actual animators!
I enjoyed your story too. Good on you for going for it! At the very least, you tried!
Thank you, I really appreciate it :)
Re: Let there be more biographies of failures
#98The whole TV show “Halt and Catch Fire” was basically about serial failure by a bunch of technically minded narcissists. I’ve never related more to a television show. Notably, it got ignominiously cancelled. I think failure is bad entertainment.
How is HACF bad entertainment? Greatest show ever IMO
Re: Let there be more biographies of failures
#99Can't we all just look around to see the biographies of the failures?
Re: Let there be more biographies of failures
#100I found Bill Brysons : “A short history of nearly everything” rather including regarding people who nearly made history standing in the shadow of the people history remembered.