I love failure, it allows me to learn. I’ve had many failures in my past, and my current project, which I believe will work (You have to believe or it will never!) has been a slow build up of my past failures which were out of my control, now that I have it all in my control, I feel I can do better. Here’s to the future and the past!
When I first saw Bob I was 18 and I, like many other users, hated the thing. My mom, on the other hand, loved it. I guess she couldn’t figure out how the Start menu worked or something. She was all gung-ho about making her “house” in Bob and tried to get everyone in my family to do it too. One day, my 8 or 9 year old brother figured out my mom’s password (probably by just asking her), logged into her house and placed animated fires all over every room. When Mom logged in the next time, she found her precious house in flames. Virtual arson. Gotta love it.
It was this exact problem which prompted the “Worse than Failure” post on thedailywtf.com
Many of the former software engineers at Williams are fans of the site and I’m sure you’ll be hearing from them. I was working there at the time myself in the slot department, waiting for a spot in pinball that obviously never arrived. Watching it happen was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen though, you’ve never witnessed such dedication, passion, and inspiration. I’ll never forget it, thanks for recognizing and spotlighting a truly amazing thing.
It’s always a crappy feeling to fail, but you’re right. Some of the most epic failures of my life have actually made me better. It applies to much more than programming.
“The road to wisdom? Well, it’s plain
And simple to express:
Err And err And err again
But less And less And less.” - Piet Hien
And A.J. brings up the best anecdote. His mom loved it after she started using it. We digerati hated it with a passion.
Remind you of another much-malinged product?
The lesson is not about failed projects. It’s about how divorced from normal reality we in the tech echo-chamber are. For example, have you ever played Deer Hunter (the computer game)? Do you know how many copies it’s sold?
Great post Jeff. I remember when I came to this realization a few years ago, working on a project that I knew was going to fail even as I was being assigned to work on it - it just wasn’t staffed for success. So every day I had to come to work to do my assigned job, knowing that it made no difference to the company because the project would eventually be canceled. I had to figure out how to keep motivation, and what you mentioned is where I eventually came to: Every day was a chance to become a better software developer, and every day I could take pride in writing great software. Realizing that gave my job meaning again, and made me a much better professional.
So, would YOU hire someone who’s resume is full of failed projects?
Great blog! As you write above, it’s hard to imagine anyone in the industry who hasn’t encountered failure. I think after every project one has the responsibility to himself to go back and ask ‘Where are all the places I totally screwed the pooch?’ It’s hard to ask yourself this, though, and even harder to answer honestly. I can’t think of a single project I worked on where there wasn’t at least one thing where I looked back and said ‘God, you were a dumbass’. The people who instead prefer to point fingers at others, lay the blame on fate or circumstance are the ones you really have to look out for.
Yeah, Jeff, I went to the entire trouble of coming all the way to your blog, and I didn’t like this entry. So now I’m going to go to a bunch of trouble to write a comment about how I, with my highly developed blog-assessment skills, now consider your blog worthless and – wait, I’m not done! – and how Real Soon Now I’m going to stop reading it. So there. Hope you read this and reconsider what a failure the blog is. If you want to read a REAL blog that gets a LOT of traffic, be sure to visit … uh, well, I don’t actually blog. I just spend a lot of time complaining about how other people’s blogs suck. On their blogs.
Anyhoo … I was on Bob. Bob had a vision that several people have alluded to, which is that it was a computer UI for people who are 180 degrees removed from anyone who reads a blog about programming. People should go down to the local library and volunteer to teach beginning computer classes to old folks for a couple of quarters, and THEN come back here and talk about how stupid Bob was. Of course, one might ask them to actually use Bob for a while, not just read an Infoworld columnist’s opinion about it.
Did folks on Bob learn from it? Sure. How many people who are dissing Bob here learned from Bob, and what did THEY learn that they then applied to THEIR projects?
Love it! As much as I love clean code I think developers should focus on delivering good products and learning from mistakes in failed products. Sometimes we tend to say something along these lines: “Well, it failed, but the code was awesome”. I try to stop thinking like that. Clean code is the means for releasing a successful product, not the objective.
@John W - If that person says:
Project 1 - Was fun, but then sucked, and it failed
Project 2 - Wasn’t fun, always sucked, and was determined to fail
Now, I wouldn’t hire them. But if a person put on his resume:
Project 1 - Was fun, learned a lot, but unfortunately, didn’t work out
Project 2 - Was tough, pushed through it, still wasn’t meant to be
Then yes, I would hire him. It’s all about how they project themselves and their attitude towards the project, if they are bitter and sour, then they wouldn’t be good candidates, but if the overall description of the failed projects is positive, they are the type of person that learns from failure and is the good candidate, like Jeff explains above.
Thanks Jeff, for the most thoughtful and insightful post I’ve seen in a blog for a very long time.
I’ve noticed plenty of fellow readers seem quite unhappy that you’re writing something ‘pedestrian’. Well don’t stop, please. It’s the pedestrian posts that kept me coming back to your blog, because it makes the blog more than just a ‘tip of the day’ feed. There are plenty of those on the web already; your blog is unique.
I love your blog, and I’ll keep coming back for more. Keep it rolling. 
Is it just coincidence that Microsoft Bing is sort of a Web version of Microsoft Bob and Bing Crosby is the older, more successful brother of Bob Crosby? I mentioned this on Twitter when Bing went live, but it didn’t get much traction and haven’t seen it noted anywhere else.
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@ John W You’d have a hard time not getting a question like “describe a time when you failed miserably” at a job interview. If your answer is “Bob”, then I guess you’ve answered well.
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the engineers at Williams - the only remaining manufacturer of pinball machines in the United States
Stern were (and still are) going. They are now the only manufacturers of pinball machines worldwide.
The Williams pinball 2000 machines (Revenge from Mars and Star Wars Episode 1) is considered by a lot of people to be a ‘toy’ pinball. They are very simple (almost always just going for the centre shot) and get boring very quickly.
I work at a place that specialises in pinball sales and so have seen a very broad range of the pins out there.
There is no doubting that the innovations of pin2000 were exiting but in the end they did nothing to reinvigorate the industry. Too much attention was spent on the screen to the detriment of the rest of the game (the ‘traditional’ pinball part).
In fact there is very little difference between pins manufactured now (by Stern) and pins manufactured in the '90s.
Oh, and definitely a +1 for the Simpsons Pinball Party - possibly the most complex pinball ever made (in terms of rules). What a great machine.
Not everyone who becomes a “success” rides on the back of failure. Facebook is a good example of that - the creator was originally just the programmer, but “backed out” and stole the code for himself. He never failed, and now is rich because of it.
It’s so sad that pinball is dead today. I’m only 31 and yet pinball’s high water mark was just when I was a teenager. The early 90s pins were incredible (Twilight Zone being my favorite for its depth and challenging ceramic ball). As recently as 1999 I was actually cash flow positive on pinball for the year due to tournament winnings. I’m glad Stern is around because after Williams demise they figured out through trial and error how to make a good machine (Simpsons Pinball Party is incredible when everything works).
The problem today is that the remaining pinball machines in public are poorly maintained, which means they are no fun because often the flippers are so weak or elements are broken so that it’s impossible to actually play the game. Casual players are then put off by how boring it is without even realizing what the problem is. The sad part is that video games are still a pale pale shadow of the physicality of pinball. Maybe in 30-40 years they will be able to create a video game that has the realism to simulate the pinball experience, but I doubt it. Guess I’ll have to become a private collector like everyone else who still loves pinball. $0.50 hobby turns into a $1000.00 hobby overnight.
