
{"id":2681,"date":"2019-05-21T04:27:07","date_gmt":"2019-05-21T04:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/"},"modified":"2025-04-05T06:21:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T06:21:14","slug":"misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends","title":{"rendered":"Misfortune and failure, my old friends"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">There is an old adage in science: you will fail far more than you will succeed. It\u2019s something I\u2019ve come to accept, although begrudgingly at that, throughout my time as a researcher. I believe most of us who have embarked on a career in science have realised this at least to some extent as well.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">To put things into perspective, my first year as a PhD student looked something like below:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"tab-stops: list .5in;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Cloning woes were a constant companion.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"tab-stops: list .5in;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Anticipated successful and significant results were few and far between.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"tab-stops: list .5in;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">I received second-degree burns with liquid nitrogen; so I was out of the lab for 1-2 months.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"tab-stops: list .5in;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">About half the lab disappeared on maternity leave at some stage or another.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">This was not exactly how I planned the first year of my PhD going, to put it mildly.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Sometimes it\u2019s your own fault that something didn\u2019t work and other times it\u2019s not. Often it is the volunteers, project students and Honours students who make mistakes the most frequently. This isn\u2019t overly surprising as they are often new to the field of hands-on research. But I\u2019m a big believer in learning from your mistakes, and I\u2019ve made a fair few myself. People tend to learn far more from their mistakes than from their successes. For me, the mistakes I have made are often right at the front of my mind, so I rarely make the same mistake twice. However, mistakes don\u2019t tend to get you too far with research.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">But what if, theoretically, your experiment is flawless in design and it still doesn\u2019t work? Well, that\u2019s when people start losing their minds.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">One of the things that I\u2019ve noticed, at least in Honours and PhD students is their ability to cope in adverse scenarios. Some crack under the pressure and quit, others keep pushing through but question why they are doing all this work in the first place, and others possess a sheer stubbornness with a \u201cfailure is not an option\u201d mentality. Everyone is different in how they cope with failure. Some are quiet in their despair, others will rant and rave, and finally some will drown their sorrows in coffee, alcohol or ice-cream. Most will use a combinatorial approach to some extent.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">I find that while each coping mechanism has its own merit, it\u2019s also important not to become too bogged down in it. Yes, it\u2019s okay to be upset that something didn\u2019t go the way you wanted it to, but we as scientists are investigators and problem solvers. It might be hard, but we need to take a step back, think about the science rationally, and come up with an explanation as to why the experiment failed and what could be done next time to improve the outcome.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">For many of us scientists, we take the failure because we love what we do and we problem-solve around it. It might take a while to fix the problem, but you\u2019ll eventually get the data you need for that next publication or grant.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">And through all of this we, as scientists, gain resilience.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">There is something that is said fairly common around the lab \u2013 at least by one of our lab members \u2013 and it\u2019s something that may be an unpopular opinion, but I think could be quite valuable. What is that exactly? Don\u2019t become too personally invested in your science.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">I chose to interpret it in a particular way when I was having a rough time with my PhD. For me, it meant stopping lab work for a day or two and evaluating where my project was and where I wanted it to go. It also meant evaluating my personal life a bit too. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, I realised my personal life was non-existent, or rather the lab was my personal life. I ended up doing a lot to try and rectify this and get a better work-life balance. I went on a holiday around Europe for 3 weeks, joined a netball team, picked up French classes, aimed to catch up with friends and family I had been neglecting, and resolved (mostly) ongoing sleeping problems. It was something that I probably should have done some time ago, but it\u2019s done now and I\u2019m happier for it.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Evaluating is something we constantly do in our science, but maybe not something we do too often in our personal lives. I would encourage everyone to take a break, evaluate, and then progress with a clear head \u2013 especially if things aren\u2019t going your way.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><i>Nicola Scott (<\/i><a style=\"color: blue; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Nicola_A_Scott\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>@Nicola_A_Scott<\/i><\/a><i>) is a PhD candidate studying cholesterol regulation at UNSW. This story was published on November 28, 2018, on <\/i><a style=\"color: blue; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/\"><i>Confessions of the Brown Lab Researchers<\/i><\/a><i> (available <\/i><a style=\"color: blue; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/\"><i>here<\/i><\/a><i>), and has been republished here with permission.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is an old adage in science: you will fail far more than you will succeed. It\u2019s something I\u2019ve come to accept, although begrudgingly at that, throughout my time as a researcher. I believe most of us who have embarked on a career in science have realised this at least to some extent as well. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":955,"featured_media":33313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2414],"tags":[2454,2669],"new_categories":[],"new_tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-2681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-researcher-stories","tag-researcher-stories","tag-stories-of-struggle"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Misfortune and failure, my old friends<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There is an old adage in science - you will fail far more than you will succeed. And although it\u2019s something I\u2019ve begrudgingly come to accept throughout my time as a researcher, it was not was exactly how I planned the first year of my PhD going.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Misfortune and failure, my old friends\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There is an old adage in science - you will fail far more than you will succeed. And although it\u2019s something I\u2019ve begrudgingly come to accept throughout my time as a researcher, it was not was exactly how I planned the first year of my PhD going.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Editage Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-05-21T04:27:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-05T06:21:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"656\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"336\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guest Author\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Editage\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Editage\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Guest Author\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Guest Author\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/f11026ed9e9969d852ec6950027eb5c0\"},\"headline\":\"Misfortune and failure, my old friends\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-21T04:27:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-05T06:21:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\"},\"wordCount\":809,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"Researcher Stories\",\"Stories of Struggle\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Researchers and Their Stories\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/\",\"name\":\"Misfortune and failure, my old friends\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-21T04:27:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-05T06:21:14+00:00\",\"description\":\"There is an old adage in science - you will fail far more than you will succeed. And although it\u2019s something I\u2019ve begrudgingly come to accept throughout my time as a researcher, it was not was exactly how I planned the first year of my PhD going.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"width\":656,\"height\":336},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Misfortune and failure, my old friends\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/\",\"name\":\"Editage Insights\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Editage Insights\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":324,\"caption\":\"Editage Insights\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/Editage\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/f11026ed9e9969d852ec6950027eb5c0\",\"name\":\"Guest Author\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/27830a5350df03deabe604d3182f79b54a29d610ae8e5c84aef68eefc4938f4a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/27830a5350df03deabe604d3182f79b54a29d610ae8e5c84aef68eefc4938f4a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Guest Author\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/guest-author\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Misfortune and failure, my old friends","description":"There is an old adage in science - you will fail far more than you will succeed. And although it\u2019s something I\u2019ve begrudgingly come to accept throughout my time as a researcher, it was not was exactly how I planned the first year of my PhD going.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Misfortune and failure, my old friends","og_description":"There is an old adage in science - you will fail far more than you will succeed. And although it\u2019s something I\u2019ve begrudgingly come to accept throughout my time as a researcher, it was not was exactly how I planned the first year of my PhD going.","og_url":"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/","og_site_name":"Editage Insights","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage","article_published_time":"2019-05-21T04:27:07+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-04-05T06:21:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":656,"height":336,"url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Guest Author","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Editage","twitter_site":"@Editage","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Guest Author","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends"},"author":{"name":"Guest Author","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/f11026ed9e9969d852ec6950027eb5c0"},"headline":"Misfortune and failure, my old friends","datePublished":"2019-05-21T04:27:07+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-05T06:21:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends"},"wordCount":809,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","keywords":["Researcher Stories","Stories of Struggle"],"articleSection":["Researchers and Their Stories"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends","url":"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/","name":"Misfortune and failure, my old friends","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","datePublished":"2019-05-21T04:27:07+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-05T06:21:14+00:00","description":"There is an old adage in science - you will fail far more than you will succeed. And although it\u2019s something I\u2019ve begrudgingly come to accept throughout my time as a researcher, it was not was exactly how I planned the first year of my PhD going.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","width":656,"height":336},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/brownlabbanter.wordpress.com\/2018\/11\/28\/misfortune-and-failure-my-old-friends\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Misfortune and failure, my old friends"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/","name":"Editage Insights","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization","name":"Editage Insights","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp","width":2560,"height":324,"caption":"Editage Insights"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage","https:\/\/x.com\/Editage"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/f11026ed9e9969d852ec6950027eb5c0","name":"Guest Author","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/27830a5350df03deabe604d3182f79b54a29d610ae8e5c84aef68eefc4938f4a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/27830a5350df03deabe604d3182f79b54a29d610ae8e5c84aef68eefc4938f4a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Guest Author"},"url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/guest-author"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/955"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2681"},{"taxonomy":"new_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/new_categories?post=2681"},{"taxonomy":"new_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/new_tags?post=2681"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=2681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}