How do you explain Silicon Valley's "failure is accepted" culture

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42408074

by raknahs1991biz • 2 years ago

2 5 2 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

...to someone who is not from the valley?

neverClicking• 2 years ago

I don't. You don't have to either.

082349872349872• 2 years ago

stock baskets (better yet, option baskets) vs baskets of bonds

latexr• 2 years ago

The USA just elected, for the second time, a person who failed so much at business he bankrupted casinos.

It’s called failing upwards, and is not at all constrained to Silicon Valley.

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210226-failing-up-why...

One of the reasons the phenomenon persists (…) is because hiring managers, decision-makers, even voters can be easily “seduced” by characteristics incompatible with good leadership, such as overconfidence.
(…)
Once an individual is promoted, they become more visible to management, recruiters and other leaders; experience on a resumé begins to hold more value than actual performance outcome. And perhaps most importantly, once an employee is promoted, bosses become invested in that person’s success because it becomes a reflection of their own judgement. Failures are downplayed and losses are spun into wins.

krapp• 2 years ago

Money, money money money money. Mooooneeey.

eesmith• 2 years ago

The ability for very rich people to make butt-loads of money from the few non-failures.

From 14 years ago, https://www.inc.com/eric-markowitz/brilliant-failures/why-si...

The first, and most obvious, answer, is that failure has become inexpensive.
"failure is almost synonymous with learning experience"
not punishing failure leads to stronger long-term growth.
funds are leveraged with the expectation of failure; failure is baked into VC firms' business models. Start-ups are encouraged to swing for the fences, because one or two big exits in a cycle will guarantee profitability for a firm.

From 24 years ago, https://archive.org/details/understandingsil0000unse/page/24... :

Many have remarked that in Silicon Valley there is little stigma attached to failure. Most have attributed this to a "cultural" trait; few have considered that it is in the interest of the venture capitalists to lower the cost of failure. It is critical for the entire system that entrepreneurs continue to venture. Discouragement and punishment increases the cost of failure and offers little economic return to the venture capitalists. Also, it should never be forgotten that success is valued far more highly than failure!

How do you explain Silicon Valley's "failure is accepted" culture

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