Chapter Ten: Try and Fail

Shirky talks about how most websites that are invented or launched will ultimately fail, mostly because there are so many other websites being created that serve similar or same purposes and the competition is intense for who will come up with the best website.

The internet is a good example of where a "try and fail" theme is laced throughout the internet and its millions of websites. In middle school, I know that during Physical Education classes we were given different games or exercises that we had never done before: every student had to try whether they succeeded or failed. I specifically remember a physical education class my sophomore year of high school where we had to run a 5K around the track. EVERYONE had to participate, no matter how skinny, fat or athletically challenged you were, sitting out was not an option. It was o.k. if you had to walk, but regardless, you had to participate. I think this is a great example of "try and fail" because we werent graded on our performance but rather whether or not we started and completed the task at hand. For those of us who had never run a 5K, now we knew where we stood in the scheme of things when it came to running, stamina and speed.

Middle schools and high schools should design more classroom exercises to encourage kids to try things. Their grade should not be based on their ability but on whether or not they tried the task at hand. Dont get me wrong, there is certainly a time and a place for being graded on ability-that is inevitable. But if you want people to try more things, minimize the consequences there will be for failing, instead focus on the positives generated from trying in the first place.