Seek to Misconstrue + a
Failure: The Blog 
May 2012
April 2012
- [VIDEO] Harrison and the Diving Board
- The Tasty Failure of Oranges
- What's in a Band Name
- The Upside of Being Dishonest
- A Case For Failing
- From Broke to Multimillionare
March 2012
- [VIDEO] The Most Famous, Unused Poster
- How Angry Birds Became Successful
- Vendor Says: Failure Is a Huge Success
- Winning the Rejection Game
- Fred Astaire on Making Mistakes
- Roundoff Error: Failure and Success
- [VIDEO] Dr. Kate on Failure
February 2012
- Where The Sun will Finally Shine
- Use Errors, Make Training Efficient
- Unfinished, But Inhabited
- The Success of Failure, via CNN
- Einstein Actually Had Excellent Grades
- The Physics of Discarded Paper
- The Power of Failing
January 2012
- Offensive Advertising, Increased Sales?
- I Sold Out For Millions, Then Worked At McDonald's
- Steve Jobs on Failure
- The Famous Western Failure
- Thank Goodness for Drug Addicts
December 2011
Unfinished, But Inhabited
If you invest millions of dollars into a skyscraper, you intend to finish it. But what happens when the money runs out and people still need places to live and work?
In Caracas, Venezuela, there are enormous buildings that remain incomplete for ages. But instead of locking them down or destroying the structures, people turn them into makeshift homes.
In an article in
Foreign Policy, journalist Peter Wilson tells about people who live in what would have been a parking garage beneath a mall:
Her living space measures 12 feet by 12 feet and has jury-rigged electrical outlets. She and her family share a large bathroom with hundreds of other refugees on each floor; there is no hot water. Residents hang their clothing along the rails, while Bolivarian National Guard units watch over the entrance, restricting access.
“The government provides us everything we need,” Navarro says. “They deliver three meals a day to our cubicle, and they provided beds and furniture when we moved in. My children attend school here, and one of my neighbors even gave birth in a clinic on the parking deck.” She sighs and looks around. “I can’t complain but it’s not home. It just doesn’t seem like home.”
Why would a superstructure become an emergency shelter? Economics, and pragmatism. In many places in the city and beyond, the government was forced to seized property to provide a roof for approximately eight million citizens.
The situation in Venezuela may be improving, but it’s hard to tell. But most experts agree that dramatic change is necessary. Repurposing skyscrapers may sound like a crazy idea, but it could become part of a strategy that works.
Failure is the secret to success. We sometimes need to admit defeat and try a totally new approach. We sometimes need to tear down what we’ve built or use it in a totally new way. In Caracas, hundreds of thousands of temporary housing units are crucial. They may come from failure, but they help keep many safe and protected.
