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Quote of the Day: Mistakes
“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.
“Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.
“So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.
“Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.
“Make your mistakes, next year and forever.” ― Neil Gaiman
Avoiding mistakes is overrated. It has always been my view that the only way you can move forward is by trying new things, and in trying new things you are bound to make mistakes.
When I was a task lead back in the Shuttle Program in the mid-1980 I used to tell my reports “If you are not making a least one mistake a day, you are not working hard enough. The only thing I ask is that you make a different mistake each day. That means you are learning.”
This was in a research group. Other task leads became obsessed with avoiding mistakes. Their groups lagged. My people were consistently, over a three year period, the highest-rated in the department. Other leads thought that unfair. My group kept making mistakes while theirs were mistake-free. And yet somehow we were more successful.
There is nothing wrong with an honest mistake. Just make different ones each day. Be original.
Published in General
Love it. My life is full of mistakes, but I try not to make the same ones over and over!
May not be possible in every occupation, but what a gift: the freedom to fail…and keep on failing until you get it just right.
You don’t have to worry about me and mistakes. I got it covered but thanks.
So, you wrote this over two days? ? ? ?
I shouldn’t have pointed those out in public. My mistake. ?
This was very much a factor in my work writing software. I was well known for charging in, getting into a box and then needing to rip the whole thing apart, and rearrange code. But I was consistently faster at getting to the end.
Nah. Those were one mistake. I normally don’t let QOTD sit for a couple of days before posting. Therefore when I re-read them I see what I intended to write instead of what I really wrote.
I appreciate your sentiment and applaud it in the proper context. I managed in research, development, and operational environments. The results and the costs of mistakes are very different and certainly being obsessed with avoiding mistakes means a lot more in operations where money, well-being, and lives are at stake. The evaluation approach to performance with regard to mistakes is not the same.
Yes! That’s the corollary to what it says in the OP about making a different mistake each day. I try to live by both of those rules. I don’t think that’s one of my mistakes.
I’m a doctor. I don’t make mistakes. I thought I made a mistake once, but I was mistaken.
Theoretically I know you’re right. But I still don’t like to make mistakes. Now, at least, I get over them faster. That’s progress for me.
And no doubt you also tell your patients, “No, that medicine can’t do that.”
Patient: “But, doc, it’s on the label that it can.”
Doctor: “No, the pharmacies just put that on, and you shouldn’t have read it. You’re obviously susceptible to suggestion.”
When I was in a research group, it was frustrating finishing a project but having it go nowhere. In a development group, time was critical, but most projects got shipped to the customer. I still liked research best.
This conversation is an entry in our Quote of the Day Series. We have plenty of openings on February’s schedule. If this reminds you of a quotation that is important to you, why not sign up today?
No your mistakes are handled by the undertaker. Convenient.
And nobody who can tell about it.
I’m against it. If I make the right (or wrong) kind of mistake, I can put the company I work for out of business.
Here. Hold my beer…
Context is everything.
Or, as expressed by Gazelle: Try Everything
Cute! I hadn’t seen Zootopia.