Success in American Culture:
– The American Dream is associated with success and materialism.
– Americans value achievement and success.
– Comparison of American success views with Max Weber’s Protestant work ethic.
Success in Biology:
– Natural selection is crucial for evolution.
– Charles Darwin popularized the concept of natural selection.
– Individuals best adapted to their environments have higher survival and reproduction rates.
– Differential reproductive success leads to species evolution.
Success in Education:
– Student success is often measured through grading.
– Evaluation of educational systems based on knowledge and skills imparted.
– Mount Holyoke College was among the first to implement a grading system.
– The Programme for International Student Assessment evaluates educational systems.
– Carol Dweck’s work emphasizes the importance of a growth mindset in education.
Success in Business and Leadership:
– Malcolm Gladwell challenges the idea of the self-made man.
– Andrew Likierman emphasizes the relative nature of success.
– No single definition or measure of a successful company.
– Interpretation of profit and share value crucial in measuring success.
– Company success reflects key factors and objectives.
Success in Philosophy of Science:
– Scientific theories are successful when confirmed by experiments.
– The Big Bang theory is an example of a successful scientific theory.
– Johannes Kepler’s incorrect idea led to the discovery of Kepler’s laws.
– Success in scientific theories is based on confirmed predictions.
SUBTOPIC: Dissatisfaction with Success:
– Fame and success often lead to unhappiness.
– CEOs experience depression at higher rates than the general public.
– Disillusionment with success is common.
– People focus more on objective success than subjective success.
– Celebrities face specific circumstances leading to dissatisfaction.
Success is the state or condition of meeting a defined range of expectations. It may be viewed as the opposite of failure. The criteria for success depend on context, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. One person might consider a success what another person considers a failure, particularly in cases of direct competition or a zero-sum game. Similarly, the degree of success or failure in a situation may be differently viewed by distinct observers or participants, such that a situation that one considers to be a success, another might consider to be a failure, a qualified success or a neutral situation. For example, a film that is a commercial failure or even a box-office bomb can go on to receive a cult following, with the initial lack of commercial success even lending a cachet of subcultural coolness.
It may also be difficult or impossible to ascertain whether a situation meets criteria for success or failure due to ambiguous or ill-defined definition of those criteria. Finding useful and effective criteria, or heuristics, to judge the failure or success of a situation may itself be a significant task.