Beauty of Failure
summary
Argues that deliberate risk-taking and repeated iteration beat playing it safe, citing Google's moonshots culture that rewards hitting 60–70% of an impossible goal (and penalizes 90–100% as sandbagging), quarterly 90‑day reviews that feed bonuses, and examples of product paths: Guitar Hero after nine failed games, Angry Birds after 51, WD‑40 on its 40th formula, Formula 409 on its 49th, and Google Wave/Buzz failing while Google+ finds traction — fail fast to learn.
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chapters (11)
- 0:00Introduction to failure
- 0:33Failure as a requirement
- 1:56Google's moonshot culture
- 3:31Why success can be misleading
- 4:39Case studies of persistence
- 6:10Managing innovation incentives
- 7:29Performance reviews at Google
- 8:53Timing and product pivots
- 11:25The decision to pivot
- 13:28Advocacy and investment
- 17:23Creating a culture of risk
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