## Learning from failure
+Sometimes we fail. Sometimes the code that we wrote isn't up to the realities of the system it's implemented on. Sometimes we push code that does something that we didn't expect and does any number of things. In all of these cases it causes discomfort, whether to us, the folks we support, or the folks we work with.
+I'm not going to lie. Failure sucks. It makes us feel like we're somehow less of a person because we failed. We feel inadequate and wonder how others think of us. Do they think less of us? Have we damaged our relationship with those who use whatever we've programmed? Have I damaged my relationship with my co-workers? All of these questions come at the forefront and they all stem from a desire to do our best and make sure that we don't cause harm to others. We want others to think well of us and our skills and failure amplifies whatever feelings of inadequacy we might have. We wonder if we should eve be doing this at all, or if our talents lie elsewhere. We feel like giving up.
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+We don't usually let failure be part of the learning process. Failing feels a lot like and end-point of the journey. In school a failing grade doesn't usually mean "I need to practice this some more"; it usually means that we're going to cause shame and discomfort to ourselves and our loved ones. I think there's a huge disservice we give ourselves if we don't acknowledge that failure is part of a process and that it's OK to fail. Not everything we do will be perfect. Mistakes will creep into the best code we write. We'll slip up and deploy to the wrong system. We'll cause discomfort to others.
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+A better approach is the one I mentioned above: allowing ourselves the freedom to have places where it's OK to make mistakes. Mistakes are how we learn what works and what doesn't work. We tend to remember the lessons of what doesn't work better than the ones that do work.
projects / themediocreprogrammer.git / commitdiff