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Let there be more biographies of failures (2021)www.commonreader.co.uk/p/let-there-be-more-biographies-of
169 sats \ 1 comment \ @av 17 Mar 2025 culture

Persuasive argument that we should publish more biographies about failures, rather than allowing successes to dominate the record. For example, a Belgian lawyer called Paul Otlet spent decades compiling what he termed a “Universal Bibliography” that would allow everyone to “become his own editor” and answer any question. He failed, but his efforts deserve to be better known

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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b 17 Mar 2025

I'd love that. Most biographies of successes often start with failures but they aren't central and no one remembers them.

So what are the lessons we can learn? It doesn’t always help to be right. Ideas aren’t easy to implement without the right combination of technology, attitudes, and luck. The work is what’s important, not the result. Maybe the cranks who fill their houses with cart loads of ephemera aren’t so crazy. Don’t make political trouble. Get a PR department. Have a partner who can do these things if you can’t. Be in the right place at the right time. Don’t get cynical, or as Churchill said, don’t let the bastards grind you down. Keep working. Philosophical and ethical beliefs matter a lot to what work you do and how you do it. Don’t be so pragmatic you end up being a conformist. Conventional schooling isn’t always the best approach for your children. Worry less about imaginative young people becoming lawyers. Being bored might give them the opportunity they need to have their big idea.
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