Fail Fast, Learn Faster

We’ve all been there: the fear of failure, also called atychiphobia, gripping us tight and preventing us from stepping outside our comfort zones. Society often deepens this fear, conditioning us to see failure as a mark of stupidity, inadequacy, lack of qualifications, or intelligence... But what if failing isn’t the opposite of success?

In reality, most things are on a spectrum, and there’s a lot to be learned between total victory and total defeat. Even if we don’t write the perfect program on the first try, we’ll still gain valuable experience. Take someone who wants to learn to code; by tackling small coding challenges, they might not build a revolutionary app overnight, but they’ll definitely develop problem-solving skills, understand core programming concepts, and become more comfortable with the process of trial and error.

In fact, in this article, I want to encourage you to fail, and fail fast. The fear of messing up can hold us back from this crucial approach. But the “fail fast, learn faster” philosophy, which I discovered during Dr. Hans Koenigsmann’s speech — a Vice President at SpaceX — at TU Berlin. By trying things quickly and analyzing the inevitable setbacks, we can identify problems early on, saving valuable time and resources.

Imagine the countless failed prototypes at SpaceX before a successful rocket launch!

From Stuck to “Aha!”:

My Friend’s Crash Course in Failing Fast

Now, let’s dive into the nerdy trenches with a story about a friend who tackled a mind-bending coding challenge using the “fail fast” method.

He initially went head-on, throwing hours at it to brute force a solution.

Turns out: Big mistake (·•᷄‎ࡇ•᷅ )

Weeks flew by, and he wasn’t any closer. This kind of failing wasn’t getting him anywhere.

That’s when he shifted gears. Instead of pouring hours into a single approach, he started failing strategically. Every day, he’d dedicate a focused 30 minutes to an hour exploring different angles. He’d test a hypothesis, see if it worked, and learn from the (inevitable) failure. Did it solve the challenge? No. But it did something even better — it narrowed down the possibilities. This rapid iteration exposed the weaknesses in his initial approach, pushing him closer to the solution.

Finally, after a week of these “mini-failures,” it clicked! He identified the root cause and with renewed focus, tackled it from a different perspective. Boom! Success!

True nerds know success can be quantified!

Here’s the equation:

• Success = Σ(Failed Tries * Knowledge Gained) + New Idea

The Greek sigma (Σ) represents the “sum of” all your failed tries. Each attempt multiplies your “Knowledge Gained,” exponentially increasing your problem-solving power. Then, add a “New Idea” — a creative spark ignited by the lessons learned from failing. The result? LEVEL UP!

So, unleash your inner nerd, fail fast, learn faster, and watch your success equation explode ᕙ( •̀ ᗜ •́ )ᕗ

After all, the greatest achievements often lie on the other side of failure. Now go forth, conquer challenges, and embrace the glorious nerdy journey!

Dr. Hans’s speech

See my friend’s journey unfold in his video here