Mistakes
All of us make mistakes. However, mistakes are not well understood. I present this in three steps borrowing from authors and thinkers. But before that, a disclaimer: This post focuses on errors in human judgment and not on Russian roulette kinds of mistakes (betting with borrowed money, driving after being drunk, etc.).
Let’s start with an equation – “mistakes” are directly proportional to “insights”
“When we put too much energy into eliminating mistakes, we are less likely to gain insights” – Gary Klein in his book ‘Seeing What others don’t’.
To further expand Gary, if one focuses too much on eliminating mistakes, decision making will stifle and there will not be any progress.
Second, Process versus outcome
Mistakes are visible, costly and embarrassing. However, the process is invisible. We live in complex systems where more things can happen than one can envisage. And many times, these unexpected outcomes are easy to see post facto but inconceivable before.
“Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.” -Albert Einstein.
Mistakes can be counted but do they matter? Yes and No. ??
And third, learning from mistakes
“One should learn from his mistakes and the mistake of others” – Charlie Munger.
The focus should not be on eliminating mistakes, it should be on learning from these mistakes. But as there is no black and white with most things in life, here as well, we should be careful in generalizing.
“We should learn from mistakes but not too much” – Rajeev Thakker
As many of the mistakes may not be actually mistakes, it could be a stroke of bad luck. A good judgment may lead to an adverse outcome due to the vagaries of life. An example here, you have an important meeting at 10 AM at the client’s office which is 45 minutes away from your office. You started at 9 AM but in between, you encountered an unusual traffic jam as a result you reach the meeting at 10:30 AM. In this situation, is it your mistake? The answer will depend on whether the traffic jam is usual or unusual.
Mistakes lead to progress. Mistakes are information. However, all mistakes which look like mistakes are not so. This is the most difficult part. Which ones to focus on and which ones to ignore??
Founder | Chief Investment Officer| Advisory Board AIF CAT II | Smallcase Fund Manager | Startup | Investor | ex TCS, Aditya Birla | AI enthusiast
2 年Insightful Article Nidhesh Jain bringing in aspects of #mistakes and related #insights , #Outcomes vs #Process and #learnings from mistakes. Interesting observations as well : Mistakes lead to #progress. Mistakes are #information. #Twocents from my side. Same mistake is different for two people and similarly same mistake at different point of time for same person may be construed differently. Likewise #learningsfromMistakes shall differ from #person2person and from #time2time. Thirdly, While we learn from mistakes. Not all learnings are executed or executable or executed. Even execution differs from person to person. All mistakes may be seen as #information ...Once analysed further can be #Insightful ....And further once insights are #executed leads to #progress .... So to answer your question ...Which one to focus ! Converting Mistakes (information) into learnings (insights) and then Execute (Progress) ....is the way to go !! ...Any hiccup to this process or which is not aligned to progress of your #goal can be ignored. Request for your views/opinion/agreements or disagreements etc