This was a company that seemed destined for greatness, but they crashed badly – their downfall could be attributed to overzealous investors who wanted the company to gain first-mover advantage. But because this consolation victory was not what he originally envisioned (replacing language), he sued the center, and took away funds that would have treated handicapped children.įrom venture capitalists, Web-van raised more than $396 million, and they raised an additional $375 million in an initial public offering.
#To hell with good intentions summary how to
Of course, sometimes they don’t, but in too many cases, the person who fails lacks not the good fortune of succeeding, but the wisdom of learning from what has happened, or simply, to accept the consolation prize.Ĭharles Bliss couldn’t change the world, but his invention was a steppingstone for children with cerebral palsy – it offered them a new way to learn how to speak their native tongue. But there is often a silver lining, failures don’t occur without leaving behind some lesson, some boon, that you can make use of. Sometimes, you will do what you believe in, and you will fail. He sued the centre and incessantly badgered it, until finally, they came to a compromise with him.
At first, he was happy, but then was horrified when he learned that his language was being used not as a replacement, but as a bridge to learn traditional languages. Then, one day, he learned that that for years, a centre in Canada had been using his symbols to teach children with cerebral palsy to communicate. He sent letters to governments, hoping that they would adopt his new system, but all his efforts failed. Instead of using words to communicate ideas, he would use images – he called it Blissymbolics. Blissymbolicsīliss invented a new way of communicating: semantography. This concern about semantics is an old one, and many such arguments can be found in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke. Bliss thought that language was by its nature deceptive, that people could be fooled into believing dangerous ideas because words lacked precision – a politician could phrase a sentence in a particular way that would make it appeal to a broader group of people, or he could promote racism and mask it by using scientific arguments, veiled in vague, philosophical language.