Seek to Misconstrue + a
Failure: The Blog 
August 2018
- When This Executive Was Fired, He Took Charge
- Obeying The Speed Limit Has Never Been More Fun
- London Black Cabs Helped Uber Grow
- Bette Graham Created A Product To Fix Her Mistakes
- Flamin' Hot Cheetos Had An Interesting Start
July 2018
- Fear This Instead Of Failure
- Re-Releasing Songs Created Success
- A CEO's Purposeful Mistake
- The Tardy Student And The Unsolvable Problem
- Fixing Potholes Through Graffiti
June 2018
- A Surprising Mistake In The Oxford English Dictionary
- US Army Embraces Mistakes
- Blocking A Hymn
- Eddie Shore Was Truly A Tough Guy
- [Video] Elon Musk Didn't "Pivot" He Failed
May 2018
- 8 Examples of Mental Toughness Part 2
- Necessity Turned Accessory: Allen Iverson's Sleeve
- This Doctor Has Continued To Fail
- 8 Examples of Mental Toughness
- MIT Accidentally Creates New Smelting Process
April 2018
- Johnny Cash Quit Singing Lessons
- Cruise Control Came Out of Frustration
- Time Spent Gaming Pays Off In The Navy
- Rock Around The Clock Was a Commercial Failure
- Sigmund Freud Should Have Been Discouraged
March 2018
The Greatest Free Kick
Scientists finally figured it out. We know now how soccer player Roberto Carlos made a seemingly impossible kick in one of the greatest goals of all time.
It happened in 1997 in a game against France. The best way to understand this shot is to watch the video (direct link):
You probably want to watch that again. Like magic, the ball seems to wind through mid air as if it is on a roller coaster track. Athletes call this the “banana kick.” Many people thought the shot was a fluke. But French scientists—perhaps desperate to defend the honor of their homeland—wanted to find an explanation.
Thirteen years later, researchers finally have an answer. The Associated Press explained:
Many people thought the shot was a fluke, but researchers say it can all be explained by science.
“What happened that day was so special,” researcher David Quere told The Associated Press. “We are confronted with an unexpected law of physics, but it’s possible to see this again.”
Quere, a physicist at the ESPCI and Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, and his colleagues have developed an
equation to explain the bizarre trajectory of the shot. Using a small pistol to fire bullets into water at the speed of 100 km/h — approximately the speed of Roberto Carlos’ shot — they discovered that the path of a sphere when it spins is actually a spiral.
Sometimes, you need to kick the ball in what appears to be the wrong direction. Sometimes, science can’t immediately explain why an approach will work. Failure is the secret to success. You often must do things in way that appears incorrect to find a way to win.
