The importance of failure

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Society & Culture, News, Politics, News Commentary, Philosophy

4.6 • 10.8K Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

At the beginning of the new year, many of us make pledges to change ourselves. We want to work out more. Or read more. Or cook more. Within a few months, some of us will have succeeded but many of us will have failed. When we do, we’ll probably tell ourselves to try again, that failure inevitably leads to success. But is that true? And is failure really such a bad thing? In this episode, which originally aired in March of 2023, Sean interviews professor Costica Bradatan about his book In Praise of Failure: Four Lessons in Humility. The two explore different kinds of failure and discuss how embracing our limitations can teach us humility and ultimately be good for us. Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling) Guest: Costica Bradatan, professor and author of In Praise of Failure: Four Lessons in Humility Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:34.6	The guy in front of me in the pharmacy line is halfway through an incredibly detailed
0:41.2	17-minute story about his gout, a story likely more painful than the gout itself.
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0:59.0	When things don't work out the way you want them to, what do you tell people?
1:04.0	And what do you tell yourself?
1:07.0	There's no shortage of proverbs to offer up when life doesn't live up to expectations.
1:13.6	Every cloud has a silver lining.
1:16.6	All that glitters is not gold.
1:18.6	When one door closes, another door opens.
1:22.6	You've probably heard them all by now. Most of these maxims are about how failure inevitably leads to success.
1:33.3	And that general way of thinking has really seeped into popular culture.
1:38.3	People often reflect on their failures and interviews, award speeches, and at graduation ceremonies.
1:46.4	And it's usually an effort to explain or even justify their achievements.
1:51.0	The belief that with failure comes success is very comforting and reassuring.
	...

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