Avoiding failure vs imitation of success

“avoidance of failure is a better strategy than imitation of success”

Dave Snowden

Many times we try to reach success by imitation, and that goal is pursued vigorously. This looks a lot like trying to behave like something that we or our organisation is not alike, with our assumptions being that imitating all the visible moves will provide the same results.

At the same time, nature is full of examples where avoidance can provide more interesting results and behaviour. Avoiding failure can be a useful heuristic that can be used to steer clear of the “bad results”.

At the same time, using this heuristic can provide different paths to success, other than those based on imitation. And, different ways can reveal different hidden treasures, different kinds of innovation, different kinds of learnings, and different kinds of positive results. This can be useful, as imitating success can hide some unwanted side effects that are not visible initially.

In #testing, this topic can be translated as “look for your own path towards better testing, not just simply follow what everybody else is doing”. A powerful example that comes easily to my mind is that of automation that follows blindly the same bandwagon.

Today I revisited this with my oldest son, and I realize I told him something on this line…compare with yourself not with the other, as you try to be a better version of you…not better than others.