I used to screw up on the cash register so much I leaned how to fix just about everything. So now when my boss makes a rare mistake I can push her aside and say, "Relax. I got this."

It's much less costly and efficient to learn from OTHER PEOPLE'S mistakes.

You know, I used to hear this all time time growing up from my parents who would crucify me for any failure and given how their lives turned out, I couldn't help but conclude how much bullshit that phrase really is. Yes, there's big overarching fuck-ups that become infamous which you should avoid, but no average person grinds through life without a track record of getting better at riding the storms that come.

Yet all of our systems of education are built so that "nobody fails" and it's robbing a generation from the ability not only to feel failure, but also to learn from it!

Eventus magister stultorum

I'm a software developer, so I need another pile that goes up about 2 light-years titled "From StackOverflow".

Wow... show this to your doctor.

It reverses in college STEM programs, because you’re not allowed to learn from anything other than theory and practice. Mistakes and small failures will become unrecoverable, almost instantly. Zero-defect mentality is just as harmful as the “everybody’s a star” mentality.

Surgeons nod in agreement.

I know this is supposed to be helpful, but it is wrong to say you learn from mistakes.

You can and will keep committing the same ones unless you analyse the mistake and reflect on a solution. This process is hard.

From All Three*

I just hate the amount of time it takes and it stops me from just not doing it

Isn't practice the same as making mistakes?

“If you don’t learn from your mistakes, there’s no sense making them.” ~ Anonymous

practice includes making mistakes

this is so true it hurts my soul. there are plenty of people at my job who make mistakes; I explain to them what was wrong, why it was wrong, and how to do it right. they make the same mistake over and over again. it's not even hard.

the thing is, you make mistakes in practice, and practice means you focus on and improve upon those mistakes. the meme is conflating the two.

Why don't we stop calling it mistakes and start calling it "real life application"?

When we go from theory to trying the stuff on real people overthrow money in real time mistakes are made but we figured some s*** out for sure!! Stuff that's hard to forget.

"Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces people into thinking they can't lose." - Bill Gates

Idk if this is true socially. I mean, to an extent. I'm tempted to make something about how your personality has to center around jokes and fun in order to have any kind of relationship-building to occur outside of necessity. Because people don't tell you that.

People don't tell you that they don't want to be around you because you're too up tight, or they feel weird about being around you because of pent-up emotions to the point that you choose to have emotions because you're so guarded.

I understand that it's hard to be scared of people, it's hard to be scared of ruining a reputation, but it's important to also be yourself in that respect, to give yourself respect.

Respect yourself, change for the better.

Sometimes real influential change comes from a shift in perspective and I don't think you can get that just by studying other people's mistakes

Real question was. How much did it cost?

This is GREAT for almost everything in daily life. Until it's at the "no room for error or high risk" jobs.

Doctors, engineers and designers for buildings, anything related to food/health, security.

i learned not to touch strive fire

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name checks out haha.

And I feel you on that one. My TA told me you don’t need to memorize a language to be good at coding, just know how to Google efficiently.

Failure is one of the greatest teachers in life.

Will be interesting to see where lawnmower parenting gets us!

The main difference between Senior and Junior developers, is that Senior developers know what they're looking for on StackOverflow. Juniors are grasping in the dark.

The truth is, there's way too much to know in tech for anyone to really say they know everything. We all use these tools, and anyone who says they don't is a dirty liar.

Yeah she definitely compared a cash register job to a doctor.

It's not "comparing" that's the problem.

What should be taken that "failure" shouldn't be the default "go to" method to learn. It's the most expensive way to learn.

Assessed risk is the term. Can you constantly afford to throw away resources? Too many mistakes on the register would mean someone has to pay for the losses (usually out of the employee's check).

If you make a sound judgement and something did go wrong. The reason why you went through with it was because you could afford the risk and you were willing to learn from it.

Mistakes are inevitable when practicing, but it's actually really important to minimize mistakes there. If you keep making mistakes, you're practicing those mistakes. If you don't get it right really consistently, you can't improve.

Learning from mistakes is super important but putting it next to practice like this gives the wrong idea.

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. - Gretzky
The only man who made no mistakes is a man who did nothing. - Rossevelt?

So again, are you comparing a cash register job to a fucking doctor? Obviously there is little room for error with the doctor, that's why you went to school to learn about the thousands of mistakes that were made in the past.

Why the hell would anyone listen to someone saying "Be scared to make mistakes or it will cost you". That is literally the most DE-motivating thing I've heard, hands down.

[deleted]

No actually, then you never learn to get back up by yourself. So when you fall, you fall hard.

Aren’t mistakes part of experience?

It is not one or the other, but both. Yes, we can learn by trial and error. Personal experience is highly impactful and useful. We can also learn by analyzing the actions that other people make. We don't necessarily have to repeat the same errors in order to gain valuable insights. For example, you don't have to become an addict to know the devastating impact of substance abuse. All you have to do is to drive down the street where junkies shoot up drugs in broad daylight. That's what I meant by saying it is much less costly, because the price is too high to pay to learn this kind of lesson. By no mean am I implying that you should avoid taking risks or failures. Making mistakes is an important part of the learning process. Practice makes perfect through repetition and muscle memories, but practice making perfect mistakes also makes you an expert in failing. Parents who chastise their children when they make mistakes may not realize the enormous harm they are causing. Doing so makes children afraid to take risks, instills self-doubt, and anger. Instead, parents should give their children encouragement and discuss ways they can improve their chance of success the next time. No shouting. No demeaning. Just guidance. That is what some commentors misunderstood about what I said.

I don't even know what you're trying to say. Don't practice after you fail at doing something or else that means I'm practising making mistakes? I thought the post was about learning from your mistakes.

My flow chart: Practice -> Game time -> Lose -> *Review* -> New Strategy -> Repeat.

Your flow chart: Practice -> Game time -> Lose -> Cry -> Give up because it's a waste of money/time/effort.

"I don't know what you're trying to say."

It's okay if you are unclear about something. You ask someone to clarify. Nowhere have I suggested that you don't practice to get better after failing. My point is that (and I'll use your term) before "game time", you have to make sure that you are practicing the right way with the right techniques. That's the reason people have coaches and teachers to model how to do something properly. They are also there to point out what you are doing right and doing wrong during your practice, so you can correct your mistakes. "Cry"? I have no idea where you get that from, but there is no shame in crying if that makes you feel better before you try again.

I even highlighted the Review part and you still missed it!

I'm referring to crying like what one does when they quit because they cant win. Unsportsmanlike, will only play if they're winning.

It's like you have to argue, even though you agree with me completely, I just don't agree with the way you said it you still need to produce some word salad of why you're right and I'm wrong.

We agree my flowchart is better, assuming you didn't like the one I drew up for the participation trophy winners.

I do get what you're saying, it's hard to change your slap shot because a coach said you're doing it wrong after taking 100,000 shots. Un-training and then re-training is a lot harder than training, but when we talk about learning from our mistakes we aren't talking about hiring a professional to evaluate me.

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Yeah that's what I'm saying, why are they in different piles

You are entitled to your opinion. I have no problem with anyone who disagrees with my points of view. To be honest, I just don't like the way you speak to me. It's not coming from a place of trying to learn and understand each other but to accuse and to project your own biases. For these reasons, I won't be responding to your comments anymore. It's not worth my time or energy.

Mistakes still happen, you have to discuss them and learn from them so that others will not repeat that mistake. It helps that most of these professions work in teams. This increases the odds the mistake will be seen and corrected.

We’re in agreement.

Mistakes are only available to someone who practices. Therefore, ALL experience and ALL learning is in practice only. Theory is the map. Practice is the way ✌