Ben Silbermann Quotes

You don't learn from a situation where you do something well. You enjoy it and you give yourself credit, but you don't really learn from that. You learn from trial and error, trial and error, all the time.

Entrepreneurs don't write a 100-page business plan and execute it one time; they're always experimenting and adapting based on what they learn.

It would seem that the ant works its way tentatively, and, observing where it fails, tries another place and succeeds.

More can be learned from what works than from what fails.

Every time you find something that doesn't work, you're a step closer to what does work.

If I have a thousand ideas and only one turns out to be good, I am satisfied.

You know, the whole philosophy of ad hoc combinations has its strengths and its weaknesses.

Testing leads to failure, and failure leads to understanding.

It might be a huge hit, it might not; but you learn something doing it.

I'm fascinated with films that deal with strategy because there's a right way and a wrong way to get the job done.

The fellow who never makes a mistake takes his orders from one who does.

Learning starts with failure; the first failure is the beginning of education.

With everything that is complex, we learn. If you don't learn, then it's an utter and abject failure. If you do learn, and you're able to apply that to the next situation, then you take away a measure of success.

In most parts of the world, starting a company that goes bust is dubbed a 'failure.' In Silicon Valley, we call this 'gaining experience.' We are willing to take the risks that are inherent for innovation.

I have ideas that I think might be amusing, and I try them, and if they look right, I carry them out, and if they don't, I throw them out and try something else. I don't agonize about it.

Mistakes and dead-ends often mean more to these artists than any proven problem.

Focused, hard work is the real key to success. Keep your eyes on the goal, and just keep taking the next step towards completing it. If you aren't sure which way to do something, do it both ways and see which works better.

Whether it's in the right way or sometimes the wrong way, you learn about life and its lessons.

You've got to experiment to figure out what works.

If you rely only on experience, you'll simply keep applying old solutions to new problems.

All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavor to find out what you don't know by what you do.

Find somebody who has been successful, and learn how to do it. Find somebody who has been unsuccessful, and learn how not to do it. The clues are there. Find 'em.

The core hacker premise that 'code wins arguments' is just another way of saying that anything is worth trying, regardless of whether it is a conservative or liberal idea, and that whatever works is worth keeping.

Failure is an amazing data point that tells you which direction not to go.

Not every pass-rush move is going to work to perfection, so therefore, you've got to figure out what's best for you.