Ask Adam Savage: Managing Failure as a Maker

c2 lawson i know you have spoken about imposter  syndrome in the past is this something you still   deal with occasionally if so how do you get past  it by talking about it by normalizing it yeah i   still deal with deposit syndrome all the time  of course dude yeah um it happens to everybody   it happens to everybody and i will actually tell  you that some of the loveliest interactions i have   had are with people who are way more famous than i  am who were delighted to jump into a conversation   about imposter syndrome yeah like people i would  never have expected to feel it but of course   everybody does everybody does nobody escapes it's  like the corollary of buddhist first truth um emma gibbs have you ever this great have you ever  finished a build project or cosplay costume and   upon final examination you were unhappy  with it and felt you needed to scrap it   and start over again not quite unhappy  with it but only upon completion okay   i get asked all the time what is my metric  for success in a build is it aesthetic   fidelity is it an engineering challenge what is it  and i didn't know the answer for the longest time   so i kept examining it and uh in the past few  years i've realized that what i'm looking for in a   build is really specifically an experience i want  a relationship a tactile and visual relationship   to the object that generates an experience  that is what i was looking for and hold on my samaritan is maybe the finest  example of this yet in my making life um   i was looking for an experience of holding on to  this beautiful piece that matched what i felt when   i was touring guillermo's bleak house and i held  the real samaritan for you know 20 minutes and   oh wow something's wrong with it what happened i believe somebody dropped the samaritan and the triggers  the the hammer's broken i'm gonna have to fix   that um the the young people were here playing  pool recently and that may have happened on   their watch i'll bet whoever it happened to  is freaking terrified to tell me about it   so many many many many times i have completed  a project and looked at it and thought   that's not the experience i was going for and then  i start thinking about doing that project again   i've been trying it one more time i mean i built  i built five blade runner guns over the course   of my life since i was 18 years old looking for  that experience um so i don't look at it as like   i failed i look at it as like not quite  what i wanted okay let's keep on going each one informs the next one i don't take it  hard on the i don't take it hard that like the   experience wasn't matched because i didn't  know what i needed to get that experience   i'm i'm always excited to have a clear  indication of what my next step is   that is a really key thing for me as a maker i  am always delighted to know what the next step is   i said this a while back on one of our  videos that we were shooting i said you   don't have to know how the project's going  to end you just have to know the next step   and i'm starting to think that like  you shouldn't like you have to keep the   global picture in your mind but the next  step is the only important step um yeah it's a great question um all right let's see here kev wheeler uh has a specific question  about the apollo suit connector that i   did when i showed the several failures i had while  milling one of the pieces he says or she says uh   i think it's e how do you get yourself  back into the right frame of mind after   that kind of situation you have a process to go  through to get back into the right headspace um yeah i do it doesn't always work you know it's like how do you get into the right headspace i'm not  exactly sure except like with practice so and by   talking about it that video you refer to when i  was making the suit connectors and i screwed them   up and then i came in the next day and at the end  of that shoot norm and joey and i were here and i   said you know what i want to talk to this failure  so we just set up the camera and i talked about   how how unpleasant it felt to have screwed it up  so many times and that i went home thinking i have   no business being a maker i didn't want to talk  about that on camera that feels like a ridiculous   thing to think in my head but i also recognize  that by talking about it i'm normalizing it in   a way that's important both for me and for who  might be watching and feeling similar feelings um sometimes i screw something up and i'm so upset  about it i just have to leave i have to leave   the shop i won't sweep up i'm just going to go  and i'll come in tomorrow and it'll be a new day   but when i'm in the right headspace like i was  the other day with this screwing up that thing   on the mill when i'm in the right head space  it's like i just don't feed the wolf in my head   that's angry about the situation like  it's you know the emotion i'm having   is effectively like i'm mad at the dirt like  there's no this what i'm mad at isn't a thing   and it doesn't necessarily change what's in  front of me or the next thing i'm supposed to do and i've gotten better over the years i'm far  from perfect but let's say i feel like i'm 30   better now than i was 20 years ago at managing my  emotions while building 30 better maybe 40 better   i don't even know what those percentages mean  but like you know i have improved some over   time at the ability to kind of like write here's  my emotion here's the next task i don't have to   worry about this that much this is the important  part and when you do that actually this is really   specific when you're feeling a strong emotion if  you do not feed it it really goes away in like   half an hour at the most sometimes like 15 minutes  i think there's actually i'm sure someone's done a   study on how much time a high level of emotional  activation remains kind of sitting there   making you crazy but seriously if you don't wind  yourself up and i'm an expert at that if you   don't wind yourself up you'll notice after like  half an hour that that emotional activation is   just totally gone i really have had that  experience repeatedly and so i i it's something my   wife and i say to each other all the time this  is what's happening this is what's happening   it's like i you know i can't be mad at the  wind i said the wind can go to hell but like   what am i going to do the wind being blustery  is going to ruin my day it's only so much time

Channel: Adam Savage’s Tested

Views: 47,355

Keywords: tested, adam savage, adam savage tested, ask adam savage, adam savage q&a, adam savage live stream, adam savage failure, adam savage advice, adam savage answers questions, ask adam savage tested, adam savage answers, adam savage maker, imposter syndrome, how to deal with failure, how to deal with failure motivation, how to get past failure, how to get over past failures, how to feel better after failing, how to feel better after failure

Id: xjHGCalVf6U

Length: 8min 16sec (496 seconds)

Published: Fri May 21 2021