Rodney Mullen: “The vast majority of what we do is fall and get back up again”

What does a professional skateboarder have to teach the civic tech community? A lot more than you might think.

At Code for America Summit, Rodney Mullen showed us some fascinating ways in which the skateboarding community resembles the civic tech community. Skateboarders use “open source” tools amongst themselves, shape old ideas into new directions, and manage failure on a sustainable basis.

This up close and personal relationship with risk and consequence makes us evolve rapidly as a community.

It’s often said that the best skaters are the best fallers. Learning how to fall safely—physically or metaphorically—teaches us to stay on “that razor’s edge of sustainable failure.” Falling and getting back up again shapes us individually, and as a community.

The knowledge required to take on any endeavor, in skateboarding or civic tech or somewhere else entirely, is always attainable. In teaching ourselves how to handle and learn from failures, we form the basis of the resilience and intuition needed to grow and succeed in the future.

What ultimately propels and sustains you is just a love for what you do in the first place and abiding respect for the ethos of the community that binds you together.

To see Rodney’s presentation in full, watch the video below.