"The core skill of innovators is error recovery, not failure avoidance."I was a failure this weekend.
I've been working on this Feratu sculpture for the past 8 or 9 weeks now, from plans that go back maybe four or five months back. I've spent many hours refining the sculpt, applying spray primer, sanding it all down to remove imperfections, and doing it all over again and again.
After all of that, I've finally gotten a sculpt that I was proud of.
Finally, on Friday, I poured my silicone rtv goo to make a mold, which took me most of the day. When I cracked it open, my model was covered in slime. The spray primer chemically reacted to the silicone.
Okay, I can deal with that. It was only $40 worth of rtv probably, and a day of my time. So today, I did some research and read that if you cover the sculpt in spray wax, it will protect against the reaction.
I rebuilt the mold, built up all of the vent channels, and sculpted the clay around the master until it was just about perfect.
Result? Slime part deux.
Another mold ruined. Another day wasted.
This time, after all of that, I'm just plain frustrated.
I've had some folks step up and offer suggestions, which is really nice, but right now I've got to just step away and cool down. I'm in over-reaction mode, and that's when I do dumb stuff. (Like smash the master sculpt with a hammer.)
I've got a plan 3.0 to try this all again, but right now I've got to recoup some energy to do it. I've got an empty inspiration tank.
I'm trying to avoid my pre-programmed (ridiculous) destructive behaviors, and roll back to that excellent quote at the top of this post.
"The core skill of innovators is error recovery, not failure avoidance."
I guess that I'm normally not afraid at failing. But what I've got to get better at is what you do after you fail.
Error recovery.
I need to get better at that.
I'm going to get some sleep and see if I some of my rage doesn't wear off. Hopefully writing about it here vents some of my anger and frustration away.
Once it does, I'll try part three, and see if we can bring this project to life.
Error recovery.
Recovery.
In some ways, it's what all this is about for me.
- Daniel
