Failure¬— something to be ashamed of, something to try and hide, and something to try and rectify— these are all ideals commonly associated with this word, however, what if it didn’t have to have such a negative connotation? Design Disasters: Great Design, Fabulous Failures, & Lessons Learned, which was edited by Steven Heller seeks to expose failure for what it truly is, a guide for anyone who seeks success. Before analyzing the purpose of the book, it’s vital to defined what failure means to you, is it doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result, is it stopping at a mediocre solution, or not even realizing the solution at all? These are the ideas the Heller challenged in this collection of essays.
When I began reading the book, I had numerous ideas of what a failure was. Most were expected, such as an action that people learn from, or a path that leads you to an unwanted outcome. However, I was curious about the definition. For example, if know one acknowledges the failure, is it still considered a failure? Or if it is simply a success that is ahead of it’s time, or if it was considered a failure that morphs into a success? Are those …show more content…
This book changed my idea of design by changing my idea about the process of it, it has helped me understand that everything I see as a design success could actually have been considered a failure by some, or that it could’ve failed, but it didn’t, and so this encourages me to take more chances. If the next design failure could actually be a future generations success, why would we not be daring and create things that don’t necessarily make sense right now? Therefore I would consider this book a success, since it changed at least one persons idea of failure, which as stated in the beginning of the book, is the root of most
When I began reading the book, I had numerous ideas of what a failure was. Most were expected, such as an action that people learn from, or a path that leads you to an unwanted outcome. However, I was curious about the definition. For example, if know one acknowledges the failure, is it still considered a failure? Or if it is simply a success that is ahead of it’s time, or if it was considered a failure that morphs into a success? Are those …show more content…
This book changed my idea of design by changing my idea about the process of it, it has helped me understand that everything I see as a design success could actually have been considered a failure by some, or that it could’ve failed, but it didn’t, and so this encourages me to take more chances. If the next design failure could actually be a future generations success, why would we not be daring and create things that don’t necessarily make sense right now? Therefore I would consider this book a success, since it changed at least one persons idea of failure, which as stated in the beginning of the book, is the root of most