Setting up to fail is a psychological manipulation performed on a target in which the target is given a task which is designed to fail as it has an unrealistic objective - "the setting of impossible objectives... set up to fail". The target will become stressed trying to achieve the impossible, particularly if under pressure. Once the task attempt has failed, the outcome can then be used as ammunition to discredit and blame the target. A variation on this is that an otherwise achievable objective is covertly sabotaged and undermined to make it unachievable.

The same result may result unintentionally by way of a "negative spiral of expectations... the 'set-up-to-fail' syndrome".

The prototype of the set-up-to-fail syndrome is the figure of Sisyphus, eternally doomed to roll the same rock up to the top of the hill. "But every time, as he was going to send it toppling over the crest, its sheer weight turned it back, and the misbegotten rock came bounding down again".

Eric Berne has described how what he calls a latter-day "Sisyphus works very hard and gets right to the brink of success. At that point he gives up, and loses everything he has gained. Then he has to start over from the bottom." Berne linked the pattern to his upbringing as an orphan encouraged to be a star athlete by his (covertly) destructive uncle Homer: "What Homer really wanted was for [him] to try to be an athletic hero and fail."

Charlie Kubal, better known by his stage name wait what, is a San Francisco music producer specializing in mashups, most notable for his creation of the notorious xx. The album paired the music of Notorious B.I.G. with the debut album of The xx and was named "the best mashup album of 2010" by The Guardian . He has released three albums and performed with artists including Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa, Mötley Crüe, and Taking Back Sunday.

Born in Palo Alto, California, Kubal began DJing at age 15 while attending Crystal Springs Uplands School in a suburb outside San Francisco, California, both playing in a band, Jubala and DJing parties. He began producing music when he moved to New York to attend Columbia University in 2004. While studying English Literature and Psychology there, he recorded and produced hip hop from his dorm room and hosted a hip hop show on WBAR college radio. Later, he took courses under Brad Garton and Terry Pender at the Columbia Computer Music Center with other Columbia musicians, including Reni Lane. Given 24-hour access to the 125th St. studio, he created his first sample-based tracks in 2008 in Digital Performer and later in Logic Pro.

Dalton Caldwell (born 1980) is a technologist and digital music entrepreneur. He is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mixed Media Labs.

Born in El Paso, Texas, Caldwell graduated from Stanford University in 2003 with a B.S. in Symbolic Systems and a B.A. in Psychology.

After graduation, Caldwell worked briefly for VA Linux (where he had previously worked as a summer intern) before founding imeem in late 2003 with Stanford classmate (and ex-Napster engineer) Jan Jannink.

Having raised over $50 million from investors including Sequoia Capital, imeem was one of the world’s largest music streaming services until it was bought and effectively shut down by MySpace.

Mixed Media Labs, founded in 2010, is a start-up whose first product is picplz, a photo broadcasting application for iPhone and Android mobile devices. The apps let users add effects to their images for free. Current effects include "Instant Film," "Russian Toy Camera," "the 70s" and "High Contrast Monochrome.” Caldwell says the effects are non-destructive, as picplz uploads both a copy of the original photo as well as the one with the applied filter.