Experiments fail and careers plans can go awry, forcing us to pivot in a different direction. Organizations also make mistakes. But failure, at both an individual and institutional level, can be a useful teacher.
In the first episode of a six-part podcast series about failure in science, Nature editor-in-chief Magdalena Skipper says: “I find it surprising that we don’t talk more about failure, that we’re not more honest about the role that it plays. Nobody wants to talk about it. Hence, it’s a taboo.”
In April, the journal partnered with Imperial College London on a one-day conference looking at the role of failure in science. Some of the themes from that event will be covered in future episodes, including how Silicon Valley celebrates “failing fast” as an important learning tool which academia can learn from, and the importance of risk-taking in research.
Launching the conference alongside Stephen Webster, who leads Imperial's Good Science project, a programme that examines research culture, Skipper said the best career decision she ever made was stepping away from active research.
She tells the podcast: “To some who are wedded to the idea that the only true path for a researcher is to continue in active research, that was a sign of my failure. I failed to be a successful academic researcher.” She ends by quoting British statesman Sir Winston Churchill, who said: “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”
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