--- 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 chapter: ~ commentary: ~ commref: ~ confdates: ~ conference: ~ confloc: ~ contact_email: ~ creators_id: [] creators_name: - family: Dennett given: Daniel C honourific: '' lineage: '' date: 1995 date_type: published datestamp: 1998-05-03 department: ~ dir: disk0/00/00/02/88 edit_lock_since: ~ edit_lock_until: ~ edit_lock_user: ~ editors_id: [] editors_name: - family: J given: Brockman honourific: '' lineage: '' - family: K given: Matson honourific: '' lineage: '' eprint_status: archive eprintid: 288 fileinfo: /style/images/fileicons/text_html.png;/288/1/howmista.htm full_text_status: public importid: ~ institution: ~ isbn: ~ ispublished: pub issn: ~ item_issues_comment: [] item_issues_count: 0 item_issues_description: [] item_issues_id: [] item_issues_reported_by: [] item_issues_resolved_by: [] item_issues_status: [] item_issues_timestamp: [] item_issues_type: [] keywords: ~ lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:53:47 latitude: ~ longitude: ~ metadata_visibility: show note: ~ number: ~ pagerange: 137-144 pubdom: FALSE publication: How Things Are publisher: 'William Morrow and Company, New York' refereed: FALSE referencetext: ~ relation_type: [] relation_uri: [] reportno: ~ rev_number: 8 series: ~ source: ~ status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:26:21 subjects: - appl-cog-psy - phil-mind succeeds: ~ suggestions: ~ sword_depositor: ~ sword_slug: ~ thesistype: ~ title: How to Make Mistakes type: bookchapter userid: 38 volume: ~