DEFINITION
Experiment
Experiments are the means to reduce the risk and uncertainty of your business idea.
The experiment is at the core of scientific method. Like the hypothesis, it can be traced back through history to everything from how the vision works with the eye to measuring time.
What has remained consistent over time is that the scientific method is a valuable method for generating insights.
Children naturally experiment and iterate their way through problems. Once they begin to progress through traditional schooling, experimentation gradually becomes less and less of a practice outside of science class. The way students are graded, judged, and tested means they have to find the single right answer. In life, as it is in business, there is rarely a single right answer. So over time people optimize for being right, instead of making progress, because they’re accustomed to being penalized for being wrong.
It’s no surprise that children raised in this style of educational system become adults who often struggle with the idea of being wrong. The culture of rewarding who is right and penalizing who is wrong extends into their businesses. They’ve been conditioned to look for that one right answer.
As you read this book and learn how to test your business ideas, you ...
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