success/failure or every front has a back or to act or not to act or the problem with a can of worms.
Posted on December 21, 2011 | posted by:
In chapter one of Tim Brown’s book Change By Design he says “Fail early to succeed sooner”. There are quite a few similar sentiments out there that encourage the idea that to succeed one must fail. The dichotomy of success/failure is like any other opposite; we can’t know one, or at least appreciate it, without the other. What I’m questioning is whose criteria for success and failure are we adhering to?
In Natural Capitalism, the authors, Hawken, Lovins, and Lovins write an interesting scenerio:
“Imagine a conversation taking place at the end of the nineteenth century. A group of powerful and far seeing businessmen announce that they want to create a giant new industry in the United States, one that will employ millions of people, sell a copy of its product every two seconds, and provide undreamed-of levels of personal mobility for those who use its products. However, this innovation will have other consequences so that at the end of one hundred years, it will have done or be doing the following:”
-Paved an area equal to all the arable land in the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania;
-Maimed or injured 250 million people and killed more Americans than died in all wars in the countries history;
-Be combusting 8 million barrels of oil everyday (450 gallons per person annually);
Of course, they are writing about the automobile. Above are just some of the highlights from the long list of impacts the automobile has had on our health and our planet.
After over 100 years of iteration, from the Model T to the- (funny, when I googled: Whats the biggest vehicle on the road today? The first entry was: Top 10 Best Car List. Is bigger still better in America? Re-phrasing my question for google I get: The 100 Most Reliable Cars of the Last Decade. Honda Accord, if you’re wondering, is number one. I’m digressing, though I think that it might be telling as to what our criteria, as Americans, is for a successful car). I realize I didn’t finish that last sentence, with the help of Wikipedia I’ll do just that. After over 100 years of iteration, from the Model T to the Ford F-350 Super Duty Crew Cab Long Bed (I cited the longest measurement in the list of superlatives) The automobile, is finally, slowly, making its way to reasonable solutions with the criteria for success not only being the health and safety of human beings but the environment as well.
Why do I feel like I opened a can of worms here? Perhaps it’s wicked problem syndrome. The solution to a problem is not finding the solution but discovering the problem through finding solutions. I think I got that correct. Although in the case of the automobile it surely seems like the solutions to finding the problem created the problem. I’m reminded of a quote from Victor Papanek’s book Design for the Real World (1971) .
“There are professions more harmful than industrial design, but only a few of them.” Or this “… by creating whole species of permanent garbage to clutter up the landscape, and by choosing materials and processes that pollute the air we breath, designers have become a dangerous breed.”
Papanek was certainly speaking a truth, unfortunately, a truth that was scorned by most of the designers of his time. The first quote I have heard numerous times this semester. Why? Because it is as relevant today as when he wrote it in 1971.
If I’ve learned anything this semester, I’ve learned that we cannot afford to look at anything at face value. Not even the problem. If we can’t afford to take even the problems we’re addressing at face value then we cannot assume a projects success or its failure without looking to how it’s being measured and who is creating the measurement. In short, what’s the framework for measurement? The success/failure of a product or service in the market place has no bearing on the success/failure of that same service or product on the environment. As I’ve reminded myself over and over this semester, every front has a back.
This can have a deer in the headlights affect. How do we act, knowing that our actions can have unintended consequences? How do we not act when we know action is called for? Now there’s a quandary, one that we are not alone in. Another refrain we have heard this semester over again is: “Act in the face of uncertainty”. Perhaps here there is a measure of success that is undeniable. Because to simply act is the first step to exploration, questioning, wondering what if, debating, prototyping, experimenting, failing and even succeeding.