A quote about mistakes

Found this gem on X today:

The beauty of doing nothing is that you can do it perfectly. Only when you do something is it almost impossible to do it without mistakes. Therefore people who are contributing nothing to society, except their constant criticisms, can feel both intellectually and morally superior.

— Thomas Sowell

Is it right, though? Can we make mistakes when we drive? Or when we land airplanes? Most areas of life have mistake tolerance, and the mistake tolerance gives an opportunity for risk taking. However, some life situations do not allow that. But in any case, the oversimplification of otherwise very complex problems feels pleasant to the eye. If you’re active, try to change things, you’ll make mistakes, will learn from them, and most of the times it will be okay.

7 thoughts on “A quote about mistakes

  1. Dear Veselin, important point you made. A child, a young one can make a mistake… even we are, adults still making mistakes, human is always in the way of learning from his experiences, from knowlege that everyday improving coming new things… On the other hand, when we put a specific position like driving a car, or flying a plane or managing a country or making a surgery,….etc. they cannot be tolerated… Law is important at these points. For example you can’t learn politics by managing to the top of a country, or you can’t learn baskeball by being a coach… But life, -almost what we live, can be learned by living… Anyway this is a deep and important point. Thank you, Love, nia

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    1. Now that you mention countries, the mistake tolerance of a country depends on the country’s size and wealth. I think it’s called strategic depth. A big country can harass its small neighbor but if the neighbor decides to harass the big country, they’re gone.

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      1. Unfortunately dear Veselin. I think the world’s understanding of morality has changed, the way the world, that is, countries, viewing each other has changed… I think the world will experience many separations, as we see in science fiction… I wonder how humanity will get out of all these chaos and the ambition to gain material power behind it, but this is for sure our generation will not be able to witness this… Even your generation, maybe even our grandchildren… For me, Today what our world forgot is humanity… We are all still under this important word… Means anything… A few days ago, I remembered, I read in somewhere else, it was like that, “A writer lives in this street, be quite!”… I never forget it. It was/maybe still is there, in Israel… and Today in the same place babies, children, women are dying… The solution should be found at the table, face to face… Human and human by talking, by sharing, by listening, by understanding… but not by killing. It should be same for other side too… No matter which side we take on this issue, there is incredible chaos, as a sane humanity, we need to put things in order… And so we are talking….

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