Princeton professor's 'CV of failures' will make you feel better about your life
Sometimes, it's OK to fail.
Princeton professor Johannes Haushofer is a highly regarded academic with plenty of honors and degrees under his belt. To show his students, and people the world over, that everyone experiences disappointment, Haushofer decided to publish a resumé of his failures.
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"Most of what I try fails, but these failures are often invisible, while the successes are visible," the professor wrote at the top of his 'CV of Failures.' "I have noticed that this sometimes gives others the impression that most things work out for me. As a result, they are more likely to attribute their own failures to themselves, rather than the fact that the world is stochastic, applications are crapshoots, and selection committees and referees have bad days. This CV of Failures is an attempt to balance the record and provide some perspective."
Below is the complete CV full of Haushofer's failures.
At the top of the CV, Haushofer explains that he likely forgot a few failures, as he wrote the resumé from memory.
"This CV is unlikely to be complete – it was written from memory and probably omits a lot of stuff," he said. "So if it’s shorter than yours, it’s likely because you have better memory, or because you’re better at trying things than me."
According to the Washington Post, Haushofer first wrote the CV of Failures in 2011 in an effort to support a friend who had a professional setback. After receiving a positive response, he later made the resumé public.
"I'm hoping that it will be a source of perspective at times when things aren't going well," he told the Washington Post in an email. "Especially for students and my fellow young researchers."
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