Y Is for Your Failure Resume

I will have to come back to discuss the topic of this (and the next post) in more detail later, but for now, please take a look at this “CV of Failures” from a Princeton professor and the Nature article that inspired it.

“Most of what I try fails, but these failures are often invisible, while the successes are visible. I have noticed that this sometimes gives others the impression that most things work out for me. As a result, they are more likely to attribute their own failures to themselves, rather than the fact that the world is stochastic, applications are crapshoots, and selection committees and referees have bad days. This CV of Failures is an attempt to balance the record and provide some perspective.” Read more

Tina Seelig’s “Failure Resume” creative thinking exercise is similar.


Y-3This post is part of the April A to Z Blog Challenge. For more on my 2016 theme of Private Revolution, see A Is for Ambition. Click here to read all posts in the Private Revolution A to Z Challenge blog series.