“Only those who dare to fail greatly,” Robert F. Kennedy said, “can ever achieve greatly.”
If that’s true, then Sweden’s new Museum of Failures is going to be a massive success.
Curated by 43-year-old clinical psychologist Samuel West, the Helsingborg-based exhibit displays more than 70 inventions that fell short of their intended glory.
Among them: the Apple Newton, Google Glass, Nokia N-gage, Kodak Digital Camera, Sony Betamax, and Lego Fiber Optics.
“We know that 80 to 90 percent of innovation projects, they fail and you never read about them, you don’t see them, people don’t talk about them,” West told The Washington Post. “And if there’s anything we can do from these failures, is learn from them.”
Missteps like Pepsi’s Crystal clear soda or Harley-Davidson’s men’s cologne—or even the “Trump: I’m Back and You’re Fired” board game from 2004.
“It’s a boring version of Monopoly,” West said of the President’s foray into tabletop gaming. “It’s simplified so stupid people can play it, but it’s also horribly boring.”
The Museum of Failure has something for everyone, including high-tech toys like the two-wheeled Segway (which can still be seen on city sidewalks, so the electric vehicle’s inclusion is somewhat dubious) and Apple’s Newton, the original personal digital assistant, launched in 1993.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Select Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: PyCon AU 2024 Talks, New Raspberry Pi Gear Available and More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
