Failure can be good!

But, as with many a cliché, there is an underlying truth that it is worth revisiting. Designing, engineering, and creating all involve making mistakes along the way. Even though failures feel bad, by reaching out when something goes wrong, you can call on the expertise of your community, learn, and make the final result better.

However, we often think failing also makes us look bad, so we don’t talk about it as an essential part of the process that got us to the end stage. We make things shiny and glossy to big-up our success, putting all the focus on the result. This tendency is, however, not necessarily helpful if we want to help educate others. As Jonathan Sanderson of NUSTEM puts it:

#stem educators: worth noting: confessions of rank stupidity in digital making get responses, sympathy, offers of help on Twitter. (1/2)

— Jonathan Sanderson (@jjsanderson) March 24, 2017

…yet our write-ups only feature the things we did right. Mis-steps and recovery from failure are key parts of process. (2/2)

— Jonathan Sanderson (@jjsanderson) March 24, 2017

The NUSTEM team truly believes in this: when sharing their builds, they include a section on what they would do differently next time. By highlighting the journey, and the mistakes made along the way, they are not only helping those that also want to go on that journey, they are also demystifying the process a bit.

Celebrate your fails

Because failure feels bad, we don’t routinely celebrate it. But there are niches where failure is celebrated: Simone Giertz’s (slightly sweary) YouTube videos are a great example. And then there is Hebocon, the Japanese competition for cruddy robots. In fact, the organisers of Hebocon make a great point: crafts that do not go as intended are interesting.

This is as much true when working with young people as it is in the wider world. In Pioneers, we also want to do our bit to celebrate failure. Our judges don’t just watch the teams’ videos to see how they overcame what went wrong along the way, they also have an award category that celebrates wrong turns and dead ends: ‘We appreciate what you’re trying to do’. Our first challenge‘s winning entry in this category was PiCymru’s We Shall Overcomb:

The category name was suggested by our lovely judge from the first cycle, stand-up comedian Bec Hill: it’s one of the accepted heckles the audience can shout out at her stand-up scratch nights. Scratch nights are preview events at which a comedian tests new material, and they are allowed to fail on stage. We may not often think of comedy as embracing failure, but comedians do scratch nights specifically to learn from their mistakes, and to make the final product all the better for it. Interestingly, scratch nights are hugely popular with audiences.

So, if you’re working with a group of young people, what can you do to encourage learning from failure and not let them give up?

Helping you to fail better

In our book Ideas start here, for Pioneers mentors, we’ve given a few tips and phrases that can come in useful. For example, if someone says, “It isn’t working!”, you could respond with “Why not? Have you read the error log?” RTFM is a real thing, and an important skill for digital life.

We agree with engineer Prof Danielle George, who believes in being honest about your failures and highlighting their importance to where you’ve got now. “I fail a lot,” she says. “The trick is to embrace these failures; we don’t have to succeed the first time. We learn from our mistakes and move forwards.”

If, as a mentor, you’re not sure how to encourage and support those not used to failing, this article also has some more tips.

If nothing else helps, but you need to feel inspired, think about what someone said to Karen, who sucks at surfing:

Karen, you are actually pretty good at surfing. Keep in mind that billions of other humans wouldn’t dare even try.

How about you? If you have a story of what you learned from failure in one of your projects, share it in the comments!

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Today we’re launching Pioneers, a series of challenges that will inspire young digital makers to develop new ideas and share them with the world.

Young people aged between 12 and 15 will work together in teams, designing and building their idea to solve the series of challenges we set. Great makers always share what they’ve learned, so each team needs to make a short video about their idea to share with the community. We’ll create a showcase of all the submissions, then judge and highlight the ten best entries; these will win an amazing prize. There are so many different ways of being the best here: we’re looking for most creative, most ingenious, most brave, most bonkers, and so on.

You can find out lots more information about the programme at 圆滚滚的扔子高清视频播放.org/pioneers, including projects to inspire you and help you get ready.

We’ll be announcing the first challenge in January 2017, initially for young makers in the UK. To be the first to hear about it, register your interest here.

Everyone can be part of the conversation and follow the progress of the teams on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube: keep an eye on #MakeYourIdeas on all those channels.

EDIT: The first theme is now live! Check it out here.

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This day of tinkering shenanigans is in preparation for our brand new programme for young people, which will be launching soon. If you’d like to apply, you need to be aged between 12 and 18, living in the UK, and free on Tuesday 23rd August 2016. You also need to be comfortable in front of a camera. We’ll be catching all the action throughout the whole day and making videos to share with the world, so we need smiley faces! If you love tinkering and getting creative, then this is for you. You don’t need any 初恋邻居h肉肉1v1 with computers or electronics; this is for anybody who enjoys making things.

We’ll cover your travel costs, and if you are coming a really long way we can provide accommodation for you and a parent or guardian. Accompanying adults will get the day to themselves to do whatever they please around Cambridge: it’s a beautiful place with lots to see.

Makers make!

In order to bag an invitation, you’ll need to send our judges a mini video about yourself. This video is your chance to shine, so get creative! (Don’t worry about special equipment – we’re expecting most of you to shoot on your phones.)

The video should be no longer than 30-60 seconds. It should introduce you and give us a little run down of what you like making and doing. That can be making cake, videos, clothes, robots, or even just making a mess. Please include anything else you think will entertain us. If you are entering in a group with friends, then feel free to get together for your filming session, but remember that each person must submit an individual video of themselves. Group videos will not be accepted: you all need to have your own 60 seconds in the spotlight.

Applications must be received by midnight on Sunday 7th August.

Submit your video and details to us via the Digital Making Day form.

If you have any questions email digitalmakingday@圆滚滚的扔子高清视频播放.org.

Don’t forget to spread the word to anyone else who may want to take part!

The gif that never grows old!

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