Why We Make Mistakes

Lesson 1. The philosophy behind mistakes.

Whenever errors are committed and humans are convicted, the investigation is ceased. But if we want to eradicate the mistake, it is ideal to not stop the inspection. Most of the mistakes committed by us are a result of our fault. However, there are certain mistakes that have little to do with our behaviour. They are a result of systemic biases which prevail in our society. Most of us are unaware of the prejudices we hold. And in cases where we acknowledge the existence of such prejudice, which might not be correct, we find it difficult to rectify them. The reason behind such a rigid thought process is that most of these biases are rooted deep within us.

As humans, we assume that we possess superior memorizing capabilities. Many studies have contradicted this belief. According to these researches, most of us end up forgetting our password after a few months. When we commit a mistake, we try to blame it on something else in a way that it doesn’t look like our fault. Thus, the notion that we learn from our mistakes and experiences, might not be true. 

Some of the most common mistakes which we commit on a regular basis include, misunderstanding the implication of something and undertaking a wrong action due to wrong judgements. Our memory is structured in a way that it restructures rather than replicate. The goal is to understand the difference between things we do well and things we do below par. This bifurcation will help us to do more of the former and to avoid the latter.

We look, but we fail to observe and understand. Although we might be looking at a particular thing or situation, our mind registers only a fraction of what we might stare at. Thus, different people tend to view the same scenario from different angles. We notice things that might seem important to us as individuals. Most of us would not agree with this thought. We might put forth the argument that we have a better vision, and that we notice multiple things easily. But studies reveal that we humans see what we expect to see. We fail to accept the truth because our brains are wired to think in a particular direction. 

Lesson 2. Importance of correlation.

Humans have very limited long-term memory. We tend to remember the meaning of instances and end up forgetting the superficial details. This is because meanings help us to form associations and link two things. Research conducted in