I’ve always been interested in topics of failure, motivation, and rewards. Especially in the context of personal achievement in the design process. When speaking with a friend over a couple beers which were his reward for doing everything that could be done in a failing situation, I suggested he take a different approach when placed in tough position…
……..In our attempts to set timing expectations with our managers/customers, it is a common practice to add 2x or 3x more time to a scheduled plan just because there are going to be countless failures from unforeseen problems. That means that at least 50%-66% of engineering time on a project is spent failing. Without giving ourselves an occasional pat on the back for our effort, how is one to cope with such a consistent dosing of failure?
By Stacking The Deck.
It doesn’t matter what one does to succeed, just that the success-to-failure ratio is kept within a range that makes a person feel good about their time on this earth. This is where hobbies save us……