I've learned so much from my errors that I'm thinking about making several more.
The funny thing, is that is exactly how a LOT of truly significant scientific discoveries have been made. "Huh, that's funny- that wasn't the expected result. What's causing that?"
In fact, there's a (hopefully rising) theory of scientific development, that says that we should be a lot more tolerant of "productive failure", and even "dead ends" in science. Not to embrace sloppiness or bad logic, but to actually recognize that a LOT of science is about failing, learning from the failure, and moving onward.
Also, I've been reading about cases in business, where people doing research, especially about human behavior patterns, have DELIBERATELY made "errors" (things that would seem like bad judgement), just to learn about the magnitude and type of results they get. No, we're not talking about endangering peoples' lives or anything like that- but giving things a chance, that seem like "bad ideas" on the face of it. Sometimes, they turn out to not be bad ideas at all. Quite a significant number of business procedures have been greatly improved, in many cases, by people willing to do this, constructively and thoughtfully...
Regards,
Gordon.
