Midjourney/prompt: "trophy with a sad face, watercolor style"

Mediocre Success Is Worse Than Outright Failure

Avoid the messy middle and aim for unambiguous results

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@travailler.avec.emulation almost 2 years ago

Good read.
memo to myself: https://share.glasp.co/kei/?p=qi56me77HbFaBYNbfcb9

Michael Koeris almost 2 years ago

Exact take. The information value is critical. And not being able to act on the information in a meaningful way means you undershot your experimental target. Aim for more extreme outcomes to drive your improvement. It’s not easy - startups need extremes though.

@sajithmathew almost 2 years ago

Great real and this makes sense.

Tony Writer almost 2 years ago

Isn’t there a scenario in which the two sales reps fail to generate sales but you don’t know why? Aren’t the ambiguities that characterize mediocre success lurking behind the zero sales result? I.e what if the zero sales result is because the sales reps aren’t hustling enough, are calling the wrong people, or are using the wrong script?

Amir Blum almost 2 years ago

@tonywriter I agree with this. Would like to see more details in the article about how to define unambiguous experiments. In my experience it's very easy to continue making assumptions about a failed experiment rather than having a clear understanding that it failed.

Jeremy Beasley almost 2 years ago

@tonywriter The idea is to have a sharper definition of success and failure to the point where it's a binary outcome. The question about *why it fails* is would lead to another line of hypothesizing which would then require another "loop" through the system.

I have a pet project I'm working on. It is now operational. However, it would be better for me to have a clearer hypothesis for success or failure.

Nan Hutton over 1 year ago

Well said. My takeaway..."make sure that there’s a well-defined distinction between success and failure. Don't fall in the messy middle."

Kirill So over 1 year ago

What is not mentioned here is the proportion of risk that is associated with big bets and hence the fact that "high success" comes with a 90% failure rate (incl. VC portfolio). So for most of us humans, mediocre success is good enough.

Even in larger companies, a 2% improvement in revenue is a good achievement from the squad perspective. But you compound those 100 squads and you have a much higher return overall.

@franck.j almost 2 years ago

Very bad take! As someone said: "you don't have to win anything"

@hroussimt over 1 year ago

Author Tom Robbins said it best, I think: "“So you think that you're a failure, do you? Well, you probably are. What's wrong with that? In the first place, if you've any sense at all you must have learned by now that we pay just as dearly for our triumphs as we do for our defeats. Go ahead and fail. But fail with wit, fail with grace, fail with style. A mediocre failure is as insufferable as a mediocre success. Embrace failure! Seek it out. Learn to love it. That may be the only way any of us will ever be free.”