I was working with a big data set, and as I manipulated it, I made a stack of mistakes. Like, loads. This meant that by the end of the day, I hadn’t got very far. I was pretty deflated. Bummed. Miffed off.
So, I kicked the bin, made a brew, and I turned it around. And, actually, those mistakes were useful.
I’d identified my own errors. I wasn’t so lost in handling the data that I couldn’t see when it stopped making sense.
It restored my vigilance against complacency. We all know the mistake you miss is next to the one you find.
I haven’t repeated those errors. Well… I have, but I’ve identified them (and ones like them) more quickly and less damagingly.
Crucially, in having to backtrack and re-do a tonne of analysis, I looked again at my process. I improved it and made it quicker AND more reliable.
Some mistakes are funny, some ruin reputations. (Some are both.) It’s how you handle them that counts. Mistakes – especially when you often work alone – are inevitable. Brian Eno suggests: “honour thy error as a hidden intention”. So use mistakes to improve, to create the contrast to truly great work.
Embrace mistakes, love mistakes – it’s your brain’s way of nudging you to do better.
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