Seek to Misconstrue + a
Failure: The Blog 
October 2012
- 'Goldeneye' Creators Had Almost No Experience
- Flushing Away an Enormous Problem
- The Little Lie About the Biggest Mountain
- You Should Unfriend 10 People on Facebook
- Inventor of Most Popular Guitar Could Not Play Guitar
- TV Show Star And High School Dropout
September 2012
- In Praise of Mediocrity
- The Failure to Patent a Billion Dollar Formula
- This Bus Stop is a Fake
- [VIDEO] A Hollywood Camera Move Made From Junk
- Productivity Through Self Denial?
- Harvard Business Review: Get Ready to Fail
August 2012
- The Innovative Power of Lying
- [VIDEO] You're Not That Great
- The Failure of a Great Singer
- James Cameron was Homeless
- Something Worse Than Failure
- Jackie Chan and the Plan to Fail
- On Failure and Baseball
July 2012
- Failure on the Radio
- Complaint Calls Can Be Useful
- The Terribly Useful Terrible Movie
- FedEx's Big Gamble (No, Really)
- Positive Fail, Dot Com
- How Boring Attire Wins
June 2012
The Secret Purpose of Computer Solitaire
Many an office worker has quietly finished a round of computer solitaire. Although seemingly a waste of time, this game actually had a secret purpose.
An long article from Slate magazine about the addictive nature of the electronic pasttime also explains its origin:
Microsoft executives wanted Windows Solitaire “to soothe people intimidated by the operating system.” Solitaire proved particularly useful in teaching neophytes how to use the mouse. When Microsoft first preloaded solitaire as part of 1990′s Windows 3.0, clicking and pointing weren’t yet second nature. By dragging and dropping cards, newbies developed the mousing fluency required to use every other Windows program. (The game’s pedagogical elements were also a handy cover story. When a Minnesota state legislator got caught playing during a 1995 debate on education funding, she claimed she was merely doing “homework to improve her mouse dexterity.”)
Solitaire helped acquaint users with Windows.
You thought you were burning away years of your life pointing, clicking and dragging. But in truth, you were training. You were mastering how to use the mouse in an era where most people thought “scrollwork” was what artisans did when carving tiny designs into ivory.
Failure is the secret to success. Like The Karate Kid, computer solitaire was a version of “wax on, wax off” that taught us all skills we didn’t know we needed. But in this case, the sneaky trick was seemingly less productive and lots more fun. Sometimes, we need to be tricked in order to master a new technique. Sometimes, there’s a secret purpose to something innocuous. Sometimes, we need to do what seems like wasting time in order to save time later.
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