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Stop saying “fail”

longform.asmartbear.com · 799 words · saved by 1 readers

“Fail” is almost never the right word for what is happening. It’s so final, so negative, and it’s a dead end: What do you do after a failure? Mope? Words have meaning. They can explain what’s really going on, and suggest what should be done next. The word “fail” accomplishes neither. If you’re solving a maze, and a path doesn’t work out, you haven’t “failed,” you’ve only backtracked. This is a necessary and natural aspect of exploration and creating businesses and products; in fact it’s even called the idea maze. It often comes in the form of an experiment. The result of an experiment is evidence supporting or rejecting the hypothesis. Neither result is a “failure.” A/B testing is a good practice, even though most of the time you will not have stumbled upon an improvement. Words you could use instead of “fail” include: experiment, test, bet, learning, investigate, trial, retry, probe. If you’re creating something new, never accomplished by anyone before, and it doesn’t immediately revo

Stop saying “fail” by Jason Cohen on September 10, 2023 Language shapes our perception of setbacks. Use words other than "failure" to describe situations and to suggest the next step. source It’s not fail fast. It’s not fail forward. It’s not “fail” at all. “Fail” is almost never the right word for what is happening. It’s so final, so negative, and it’s a dead end: What do you do after a failure? Mope? Words have meaning. They can explain what’s really going on, and suggest what should be done next. The word “fail” accomplishes neither. Exploring new territory If you’re solving a maze, and a p

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