The lessons learned from the book "Being Wrong" by Kathryn Shultz can be applied in many ways to the process of product creation. This book masterfully illustrates why product creation must include and even embrace being wrong, and yet how we as humans and as a society are not psychologically inclined towards purposefully being wrong, admitting our wrongness, or even correcting ourselves in the face of our wrongness.
Our whole approach to being wrong is contingent upon the oft-reinforced belief that error is shameful, something to hide or deny at all costs, because "it feels safe and pleasurable to be steadfast in our convictions" (p. 173). But this philosophy of sorts does not work at all when it comes to product creation.
The phrase "fail early to achieve success faster" basically sums up how scientists, especially engineers, must approach problems. This is because we know that, because it is impossible to create the perfect product, products must fail often in order to succeed. But this fact is very difficult for many people to accept, even subconsciously, because our whole society and psychological wiring is working against us. Especially because "we are usually much more willing to entertain the possibility that we are wrong about insignificant matters than about weighty ones" (p. 13). Unfortunately, a "failed" product is often perceived as a weighty matter - something that we have put so much time and energy into cannot just be wrong.
So, basically, in order to design a good product, we must ignore everything we think about being wrong, ignore our subconscious mind, and make a conscious effort to embrace failure as a crucial step in the process of product creation... That should be easy, right?
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