Dissecting an obvious error

I am reading a fascinating book by neurosurgeon Henry Marsh. Every time I read a book by a surgeon or a doctor, I am truly fascinated with the repercussions they face if they were to make a mistake and sometimes even an obvious error can spell catastrophe. Marsh writes of his junior bungling up a simple surgery that left a young man unable to use his left ankle. For them, even a small error means the difference between life and death, and normalcy and disability.

For a surgeons, not learning from their errors, big or small, can be a massive price to pay. Safety precautions in surgery and medicine have evolved on the back of numerous mistakes, trials and errors. Yet, the margin for error is so small. If most of us make a mistake, at least no one's life is hanging in the balance.

Maybe that's why we repeat them so often, especially the obvious ones.

Whenever a mistake has been made, it takes a certain amount of self-awareness and humility to grasp and acknowledge that something has gone wrong. Very often, we sit in a restaurant and criticise the service if we feel it is slow. We visit a government office, see the godawful way in which they function and wonder why they can't change their ways to be more effective.

In the same vein, what are the obvious errors that you are making or those around are making?

There is a fundamental between a genuine mistake and an obvious error.

Misreading the traffic situation and being late for a meeting can be forgiven as a mistake. Being late for every meeting is an obvious error

Being a little curt during a stressful situation may be understandable. Being curt all the time will invite nothing but scorn.

Obvious errors that add up eventually lead to mistakes that have consequences.