Concept · Silicon Valley / Startup Dogma
Fail Forward
Origin: John Maxwell, startup adaptation
Biological Parallel
The immune system's somatic hypermutation deliberately introduces errors into antibody genes, tests thousands of variants against pathogens, then amplifies whatever works. Each 'failure' (non-binding antibody) is a design iteration toward success. This is fail forward: structured mutation with selection pressure, not random thrashing. The key is the selection mechanism that converts failures into information.