---
abstract: "Making mistakes is the key to making progress. There are times, of course, when it is important not to make any mistakes--ask any surgeon or airline pilot. But it is less widely appreciated that there are also times when making mistakes is the secret of success. What I have in mind is not just the familiar wisdom of nothing ventured, nothing gained. While that maxim encourages a healthy attitude towards risk, it doesn't point to the positive benefits of not just risking mistakes, but actually of making them. Instead of shunning mistakes, I claim, you should cultivate the habit of making them. Instead of turning away in denial when you make a mistake, you should become a connoisseur of your own mistakes, turning them over in your mind as if they were works of art, which in a way they are. You should seek out opportunities to make grand mistakes, just so you can then recover from them."
altloc:
- http://www.tufts.edu/as/cogstud/papers/howmista.htm
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creators_name:
- family: Dennett
given: Daniel C
honourific: ''
lineage: ''
date: 1995
date_type: published
datestamp: 1998-05-03
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dir: disk0/00/00/02/88
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editors_name:
- family: J
given: Brockman
honourific: ''
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- family: K
given: Matson
honourific: ''
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eprint_status: archive
eprintid: 288
fileinfo: /style/images/fileicons/text_html.png;/288/1/howmista.htm
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lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:53:47
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metadata_visibility: show
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number: ~
pagerange: 137-144
pubdom: FALSE
publication: How Things Are
publisher: 'William Morrow and Company, New York'
refereed: FALSE
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rev_number: 8
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status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:26:21
subjects:
- appl-cog-psy
- phil-mind
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thesistype: ~
title: How to Make Mistakes
type: bookchapter
userid: 38
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