Manu Kapur is the Director of the Singapore-ETH Center, and Professor for Learning Sciences and Higher Education at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, where he also directs The Future Learning Initiative (FLI). Manu is also the Founding Chair of the ETH Zurich – EPFL Joint Doctoral Program in the Learning Sciences.
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Episode cheatsheet
The big takeaway
Manu Kapur, the creator of the “productive failure” model and author of Productive Failure, breaks down why seeking out (the right kind of) failure is crucial for learning deeply and building resilience. Instead of dreading or avoiding mistakes, Kapur argues we should design experiences that ensure initial failure in low-stakes environments—because failing, reflecting, and then encountering the right solution supercharges our understanding and creates real mastery.
Fail better: how productive failure unlocks true learning
Key takeaways:
Learning through failure: We learn more deeply when we try, struggle, and initially fail, then compare our efforts to the correct answer, rather than being told what to do from the start.
Curiosity as a learning engine: Productive failure ignites curiosity, making us emotionally and cognitively primed to absorb new information.
Not all failure is equal: Only low-stakes, early-stage failures in safe environments fuel learning—high-stakes failure (surgeries, final exams) are a different story.
Normalize the struggle: If it feels too easy, you’re not really learning; productive struggle and reflection are the hallmarks of deep skill-building.
6 ways to use failure as a superpower:
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