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If you're not failing 90% of the time, then you're probably not working on sufficiently challenging problems.
Alan Kay
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Failure is a sign of tackling difficult challenges.

This quote emphasizes that encountering failure frequently is indicative of attempting complex and worthwhile problems. It suggests that if you are not facing challenges that push your limits, you may not be pursuing growth or significant achievements.

Themes

FailureChallengeGrowthMotivationPersistence

In practice

Example use cases

During a team meeting, I can share this quote to encourage team members to take risks in their projects.

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The Internet was done so well that most people think of it as a natural resource like the Pacific Ocean, rather than something that was man-made. When was the last time a technology with a scale like that was so error-free? The Web, in comparison, is a joke. The Web was done by amateurs.
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By the time I got to school, I had already read a couple hundred books. I knew in the first grade that they were lying to me because I had already been exposed to other points of view. School is basically about one point of view -- the one the teacher has or the textbooks have. They don't like the idea of having different points of view, so it was a battle. Of course I would pipe up with my five-year-old voice.
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Simple things should be simple and complex things should be possible.
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Scratch the surface in a typical boardroom and we're all just cavemen with briefcases, hungry for a wise person to tell us stories.
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