Happy Friday — Why We Should Embrace Mistakes in School
Article
Today’s article is about the importance of making mistakes, dealing with them and how avoiding them may be holding you back!
Success Ratio
Every great idea mankind ever had, had on average 9 failed attempts before it. This was a result of a study I found long ago. Some people viewed this study and concluded that great ideas are hard. This was the wrong conclusion however. The study’s aim was to actually point that to achieve great ideas you HAVE to fail before.
Why fail?
Many of us don’t like failure. Reality is, when you fail, if you focus on your mistake and learn from it, you become better. This was the main thought train behind the afore mentioned study, which is strongly related to mistakes in school:
Why We Should Embrace Mistakes in School
If students can see the beauty in spilled milk, research suggests they’ll learn better.
The article mentions several strategies that teachers use in schools to promote faster learning. In our job’s, to learn is to evolve, and if we don’t evolve we become relics. And no one wants to hire relics.
Therefore, failing correctly is important. But what is failing correctly? This article explains various strategies and safe behaviours for failure. The article however is focused in kids, so I feel it to be important to make the following statement:
There is a place and a time to fail. Find it or create it. You need it.
You will fail, just like everyone else you will fall eventually. Better you do it in a controlled and safe environment that you can control rather than in your work where you can get fired or where the consequences of failing are abysmally high.
Jobs that give you space to learn, give you a place to fail
This is why jobs that give you time for your projects are better than those who don’t. Because when you have time to try new things you are given a playground to fail, learn and evolve. The more you know the more valuable you become for both your company and for its competitors.
It is for this reason, unfortunately, that many companies outright prohibit proactive behaviour while in work — the less you know, the less valuable you are and the less they have to pay you. This also means they have greater control over you.
Such companies usually pay a salary a bit higher than usual, but there is a catch: they won’t upgrade it ever, and if they do it will be minimal.
I call these companies, predatory companies. They want you for your talent so they can explore it, and once they are done with you they will find someone else.
Myth: Predatory companies are good for juniors
While it is true that to evolve the recommended ratio is around 60%-70% practice and the remaining for experimentation, predatory companies are not good for juniors. Because if you do over 90% of practice ( work ) you will not evolve, or you will do it so slow, that you will reach a point in your career where you are a senior doing junior mistakes.
As a junior, you may have time to fix the schedule by studying home. But even if you do have it, this is still a bad idea, as you would benefit twice as much from being in a place where proactive behavior is promoted.
My opinion
Making mistakes and having healthy attitude for them is not only good for children. It is also necessary for us if we plan to remain relevant in the market. Have a look at the article and let me know what you think!