Close to a year ago, I headed to Lagos in an attempt to get users for my 'startup' at the time. I eventually pivoted to an adjacent market, but I'm glad I didn't spend months building in a vacuum for an unresponsive market. I.e. I 'shipped fast' and 'failed quickly'. A year later, I'm working on something new within a different sector entirely and requiring different mechanics. With this, shipping fast with the real possibility of failing quickly is likely not an option.
An analogy I've recently found helpful is the comparison between the Titanic and the Yamato.
The Titanic's demise unfolded through a tragic confluence of design compromises, operational decisions and circumstance. The supposedly revolutionary vessel was, in reality, built with established techniques which neglected structural resilience. The catastrophic sinking transformed what should have been a manageable incident into an engineering failure that claimed over 1,500 lives after a single, relatively minor collision.
The Yamato, by contrast, represented an almost supernatural resilience against overwhelming force. At the time of its completion in 1941, it was the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleship ever built, with unprecedented armour protection. It was destroyed only after a massive coordinated attack specifically designed to overcome its exceptional durability. More specifically, the American force committed nearly 400 aircraft specifically to destroy this single battleship. Yet, even after absorbing 10 torpedo strikes and 6 bomb hits, the colossal battleship maintained operational capability, with functioning weapon systems and propulsion. It took an additional 5 torpedoes — deliberately concentrated on one side to cause asymmetric flooding — before the mighty vessel finally surrendered to physics rather than enemy action—capsizing only after withstanding damage sufficient to sink an entire fleet of conventional ships.
Both vessels sank for very different reasons — one due to myopia and premature launching, and the other due to extraneous circumstances despite operational fortitude.
We're taking our time and hoping to get things right from Day 1. If things don't work out for any reason, I'd rather it's due to 400 aircraft and 15 torpedoes than a single iceberg.