Failure is a situation not a trait. Failure is not forever. Failure is learning, a step on the way.

Instead of avoiding failure embrace your “rights of passage”, doing things for yourself gives you insight into your limits, or lack of there of.

“Not all who wander are lost”… What does Undirected learning look like? Things we often discount as leisure aka. unproductive, wasted time But really, it’s through wandering that we explore. Through exploration we discover novelty aka the magic Innovation

So do you need to Innovate? Then plan to Wander. A worthy place to start is something called the Adjacent Possible moving one step over from what you do know into something you don’t.

This talk got me thinking on something I learned reading page.links[0]

Explore vs Exploit Conundrum!

Why do we get trapped, stop looking and wandering. Turns out it’s often just a matter of perspective. How long you give your time horizon, that determines if you’re willing to risk failure for the opporunity of a new discovery.

• Children are wired to Explore, time is infinite, cost of delay, or wrong decision is low. and the probability is high you could discover a new favorite.
• Aged adults are wired to Exploit. With a full list of things that prove pleasurable, and a limited time to spend, you’re simply not as likely to find a new favorite. you invest in re-experiencing things that are known rewards.

Some genius takes real work, years of craft before perfection is reached 15 years to evolve the Leonard Cohen class Halleluja

If we only ever Exploit, this kind of success is lost in the dust. The concept of dark horse evolution.