No Hay Camino

Failure to Learn

Trenton — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:07:52 +0000

A girls’ school in England is planning on having all of their students fail. As the BBC writes, the idea behind the “Failure Week” is to encourage the students to be less risk adverse and to understand that failing at trying something new is just as important as succeeding in something you’ve already mastered.

I think this is great for the students, especially as it comes with the imprimatur of the school authorities themselves. It really embraces the critical concept that we learn by failure. This is certainly a concept that business leaders take to heart and the connection there is that the entrepreneurial spirit requires one to be more reward-seeking than risk-adverse. It is also central to iterative, creative design thinking. As Tom Kelley of IDEO put it “Fail often to succeed sooner.”

Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently. ~Henry Ford

There is no failure. Only feedback. ~Robert Allen

Here’s J. K. Rowling, speaking at the Harvard commencement, on failure. And philosopher Alain de Botton on a “kindler, gentler” view of success – one that acknowledges the crucial role of failure.

So, kudos to this British school for embracing failure. I hope they succeed in spreading this perspective in schools around the world.

(If you are looking for information about the Matthew McConaughey/Sarah Jessica Parker vehicle “Failure to Launch”, please back away from the keyboard and step outside for some fresh air.)

First (thing in the morning) World Problem, solved

Trenton — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:42:38 +0000

I was excited a while back when I saw the headline for this article about a new type of French press coffee-maker. It hinted at a new type of press that could “Solve All Your First World Coffee Brewing Problems”. I read it with interest only to find that the only problem it really solved was keeping finely-ground coffee from the brew. I was disappointed because that’s never occurred to me as a real problem.

What is a real problem with French presses is what to do with the grounds after you’ve poured out the coffee. It’s a wet mass of coffee grounds at the bottom of the glass container. If you dump it into the garbage, the grounds stick to the insides of the carafe but all the watery coffee in them dumps into the bag. If you are composting the coffee grounds, as I do, you still have the water problem. And, in either case, you still have to clean out the remaining grounds in the sink – a messy job that uses more water and potentially clogs the drain.

Again, this is a First World Problem, but it’s a daily annoyance that could be solved with a little design thinking. While the Espro linked on Gizmodo doesn’t address the remaining grounds issue, the OXO “Good Grips” press does. It has a ladle-like piece that goes into the bottom of the carafe and pulls up all the grounds after the coffee is poured out. It’s not perfect, but it makes the removal of the grounds pretty easy. (and, as to the question of fine grounds ending up in the coffee, you are using uniformly ground, large particles of coffee, aren’t you?)

Mold Pored Over

Trenton — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:13:37 +0000

Here is a stunningly beautiful video of time-lapse microphotography of various fungi growing in petri dishes. It may encourage composting, or just squick you out.

What do you make?

Trenton — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 19:31:02 +0000

I think it’s a sad sign when people, upon being introduced, have to resort to asking one another what they do for a living. The question assumes that people are defined by the jobs that they do, and, on the other hand, that they actually want to talk about while not at work. For some people, their jobs are a large part of their lives, and there’s a good reason. A small percentage of people have jobs that actually define them – or perhaps it’s more correct to say to say that they define those job roles.

Teachers are often that sort of person. Go ahead and ask them what they make. As someone did for this guy:

Ashkon and Joe Montana for Season of Sharing

Trenton — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:36:56 +0000

Bay Area music video celebrity Ashkon teams up with 49ers legend Joe Montana for a little ditty about why you should donate to Season of Sharing. Hint: it involves not hatin’. If you want to donate without spending a dime, just share the video. All the shares that they get until the 25th will be matched with a $1 donation to the Fund by the San Francisco Chronicle.