Who's your favourite screw-up in history?
(I'm leaving this category wide open so you can take it positively or negatively: someone who screwed up in a way that actually worked out wonderfully in the end, someone who screwed up massively in one field but still did good elsewhere, or someone who just failed so spectacularly that the extent of their incompetence is almost beyond comprehension. Your call! 🙃)
@MLClark Alexander Fleming. Penicillin made a HUGE difference in the world
@MLClark Pliny the elder. He wrote the first encyclopedia but was later ridiculed for fictionalizing a good portion of it. He lived near Pompeii and redeemed himself by organizing a rescue for people who were trapped on the beach when Vesuvius erupted.
Dying in the middle of an act of bravery definitely helps to improve one's reputation, too!
And even with so much wrong in that encyclopedia, it still contained a great deal of vital information for later scholars, and some sound research besides.
So it's certainly possible to screw up and still set a decent baseline for those who come after you.
Great call, J. Everett.
@MLClark Since it's "my" favorite ...
Vanguard TV-3, December 6, 1957. It failed seconds after liftoff. If it had worked, it would have placed an inert six-pound ball in orbit. Although it wouldn't operate, technically it would have been the first U.S. satellite.
Because of that failure, von Braun got the green light to launch Explorer 1 on January 31, 1958. He became a hero.
If TV-3 had worked, maybe von Braun doesn't launch, and certainly doesn't become a hero.
Maybe da Vinci? He was a perfectionist who was always screwing up and leaving things unfinished. And yet... 😂
😂 May our holographic future selves all live so richly!
@MLClark I'm thinking right now of all of those leaders who were meant to be place holders until someone better came along but who exceeded expectations, like Pope John XXII or the Roman Emperor Claudius.
@MLClark
Entropy.