The Art of Failure

-Not strangers to failure
- Failure important, grow and learn
- Take back to the beginning

- Grew up in rural QLD
- Moved to Perth to study eng
- DId really well in maths and science

Engineering Mechanics 100

Engineering Maths 140

Engineering Graphics 232

Strength of Materials 232

Thermodynamics 236

Mechanical Design 238

I probably shouldn't be
studying Engineering

I failed. And that's ok.

It took me almost 2 and a half years, but I eventually learnt a lesson from my failure

- So what am I doing now?
- Work fulltime in IT Support
- Working in then managing team
- Discovered web dev
- Started Freelancing
- 2 years ago, took a leap

- Started rock climbing last year
- Good exercise
- Great way to unwind
- Great feeling when you finish
- Thought of rock climbing when writing this talk
- OFten need to jump for a hold

- Sometimes you miss
- Fall back
- That's ok
- Sit back and look at what happened
- Learn from it

- Did this when deciding to work in the web fulltime
- Toook a chance a leap
- Started working at an agency

- Work in the web every day

- Joined fenders
- Community gave change to learn
- Met people who did what I do
- Love web dev
- Love learning new things
- Love discovering new technologies and techniques
- Always something new

- Freelanced while at the agency
- Great way to try new things
- Gave me something to fall back on

- Small slip
- Another leap
- Started working for myself

- Contrating for companies across Aus
- Wide variety of Small to medium busiensses

- Started at YOW as evangelist
- Get to spend even more time in the community and at conferences
- Meet others in the tech industry

- Past year, worked with amazing peopl
- Bunch of cool projects
- Learnt important skills
- Development and life
- Still been able to pay my bills

Learning from Failure

Learn

- Learning is important
- For junior, intermediate, senior, or CTO
- Learn from mistakes and failures

Learning from Failure

- Use git for CD and sharing code
- Not great at commits
- COmputer died and needed to be reset
- Lost everything 2 hours before client meeting
- Client understood, but I learnt to push my code more often

Learning from Failure

- Learning important to prepare for failure
- Take opportunity to learn something new
- Learnt React last year
- Gave me new skills when looking for a new job
- GOt me contracting work when I needed it
- Led to ongoing contracting relationship with startup

Learning from Failure

- Not just side project or using up free time
- Podcasts, blog posts or books
- Online conference talks, meetups
- Don't have to do side projects
- All have lives and people we want to see
- Bunch of resources out there
- Eg. SyntaxFm podcast
- SyntaxFm did a Failure episode

Attitudes to Failure

So Failure is Good?

- Topic of failure more common
- People starting to change their atttitude
- Talked about more often
- Different attitudes and approaches

Attitudes to Failure

Fail Fast, Fail Often

- Agile mantra

Attitudes to Failure

- TED Talk, Leticia Gasca
- Experiences of failure
- Started fuck up nights and failure Institute

Attitudes to Failure

Fail Mindfully

Attitudes to Failure

- Subtle Art of not giving a fuck
- Difference between fault and responsibility
- It may not be your fault
- Your responsibility what happened next

Attitudes to Failure

- Blame others for your failure?
- Learn from it
- Take responsibility

Attitudes to Failure

- Death in Discworld
- Quirky character, my fave
- Fond of cats, Binky
- Became a farmhand
- Has a negative connotation behind him
- Not all bad

Dealing with Failure

Failure isn't one size fits all

- Different types of failure
- Affect differently
- A mistake at work
- Losing a job
- Personal failures like losing a relationship
- Study failure

- All hit me differently
- Difference between mistake at work and relationship
- Not just different types of failures
- Losing a job 3 months or 30 years

Dealing with Failure

Let yourself feel it,
then learn from it

- Got made redundant
- Not in a good place, looking for a new job
- Stressed, not sleeping, 60-70 hou weeks
- Doctor gave week off work
- ASked to come in anyway
- Was a good thing
- Still hit a little

Dealing with Failure

It's ok to not be ok

- Important to move on
- Feel it first
- When I got made redundant I felt it
- Then went home and applied for jobs
- Failures big or small
- Feel it
- It's ok to not be ok
- Take a break, take time
- Use support system
- Don't feel like you have to be ok

Dealing with Failure

You

- Looking after yourself important
- Really important project or another hour
- Tempted to do this starting out

Dealing with Failure

- Look after yourself first
- Risk failure hitting you harder or risk your own health
- I've burnt out and can see the signs
- More companies and communities realising importance
- Remove stigma of mental health, burnout and worklife balance

Dealing with Failure

People

- People and community important
- Many ups and downs
- Friends and family
- Fenders

Dealing with Failure

- Lots of community groups
- Join one (not all) of them
- SOmeone who's been throguh similar
- Offer support and a sympathetic ear
- CHeck out meetups

- Broke dev on second day
- Only day 2
- Didn't have failure

Failure in your Team

- We had doughnuts.
- If you did something wrong, like:
- not follow a document
- email the wrong client
- not lock the office properly
- break a server
- that was a 'doughnutable' offense

- Weren't afraid
- Had a chance to learn
- disincentive, able to give things a go
- 3 diabetics in office - good approach

Failure in your Team

Support your Team

- Support your team
- Easy to fingerpoint
- Git blame
- DOn't start witchunt
- Encourage your team

Failures are all different

- SImilar implementationsto doughnut policy
- Not always implemented well
- Some teams place blame over fault
- Some just want doughnuts
- Used it for failures from stupidity or ignorance
- Don't single out learning experiences

Embrace Failure

- Can be a good thing
- Don't jsut avoid
- Stepped outside comfort zone
- Done something new
- This talk
- First talk at a meetup

- Done public speaking before
- First time at meetup
- own presentation
- sharing my story
- Prepping first conference talk
- Know I might fail, embracing it
- If I fail, can be a working example
- Don't open outselves up to failure, miss opportunity to try something new
- Didn't open up to meetup last year, wouldn't be here today

- Fact of life
- Important for learning
- Ok to not get it right the first time
- Take time, sit back
- Learn
- Don't be afraid to jump again
- Take time away from work
- Community, friends, family or yourself
- Look after yourself
- Ask for help
- Take a break

- DOn't be afraid of failure
- Only way you truly fail
- Fail to try

The Art of Failure -Not strangers to failure - Failure important, grow and learn - Take back to the beginning

@amys_kapers