I upvoted anandjeyahar for saying what I meant better than I did -- it's the density of concepts rather than the raw length of the text that's an issue.

On reflection, how I approach the 'maintain some failure' criteria is to keep pushing my existing skills into new areas (so I can have a 'win' in terms of pushing my comfort zone even if my particular attempt at this new thing fails. I keep failure close so it doesn't become so scary, as you mention, but I don't utterly and uncategorically fail at any time)