Articles
We invite you to read academic and professional articles about the benefits of making mistakes. These articles introduce research about mistakes and failures in various areas of life including business, education, art, and more.
Taly Reich Daniella Kupor and Rosanna K. Smith | September 20, 2017
Research: Consumers Prefer Products Created by Mistake
"Mistakes occur more frequently than we’d like. And generally, when they happen, we often don’t go about advertising them to others. But companies can benefit from letting consumers know when they make mistakes with a product. Consumers perceive these products as more unique...”
By Amanda Ruggeri
When Mistakes Make the Art
"Julia Margaret Cameron’s photographs were smudged, smeared, out of focus – and triumphs of artistic expression 150 years ahead of their time."
The Importance of Mistakes in The Creative Process
"It’s well-documented that fear inhibits creativity. It’s difficult to imagine coming up with your best creative work when your mind is preoccupied with the fear of failing. But perhaps the best antidote is to think less and create more."
Release Perfectionism and Celebrate Mistakes In Your Art...
"Navajo Indian women deliberately leave an imperfection in every rug they make. This “mistake” woven into the corner of the rug is meant to all “The Spirit” to move in and out of the rug. "
by Vineet Nayar
The Miracle of Making Mistakes
"Make no mistake: The fear of making mistakes is deeply ingrained in our psyche... There’s growing evidence to suggest that innovation flourishes when people are given the space to make mistakes..."
by Deborah Grayson Riegel. |. February 11, 2019
What to Do When You Realize You’ve Made a Mistake
"In her book, Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error, author Kathryn Schulz writes, “Our love of being right is best understood as our fear of being wrong.”
by Ray Dalio | December 21, 2018
Work Principle 3; Create a culture in which it is okay to make mistakes and unacceptable not to learn from them
"Everyone makes mistakes. The main difference is that successful people learn from them and unsuccessful people don’t. By creating an environment in which it is okay to safely make mistakes so that people can learn from them, you’ll see rapid progress and fewer significant mistakes.”
By Paul J. H. Schoemaker and Robert E. Gunther |. June 2006 Issue
The Wisdom of Deliberate Mistakes
"Although organizations need to make mistakes in order to improve, they go to great lengths to avoid anything resembling an error. That’s because most companies are designed for optimum performance rather than learning...”
By Eduardo Briceño | January 16, 2015
Mistakes Are Not All Created Equal
"An appreciation of mistakes helps us overcome our fear of making them, enabling us to take risks. But we also want students to understand what kinds of mistakes are most useful and how to most learn from them.”
By Caitlin Walsh | July 21, 2015
Learning From Mistakes
"...[students] were so anxious about making mistakes that they would not take any risks at all, and she noticed that their anxiety slowed the process of their learning."
BY Amy L. Eva | November 28, 2017
Why We Should Embrace Mistakes in School
"According to UC Berkeley professor Martin Covington, the fear of failure is directly linked to self-worth, or the belief that you are valuable as a person... students will put themselves through unbelievable psychological machinations in order to avoid failure."
By Amy Morin | July 17, 2017
5 Ways To Turn Your Mistake Into A Valuable Life Lesson
"The good news is, you can take steps to learn from your mistakes. Then, instead of repeating them again, you’ll gain valuable wisdom that will help you in the future."
By Claudia Wallis, The Hechinger Report | July 26, 2017
Why Mistakes Matter in Creating A Path For Learning
"In recent years, cognitive scientists have done gobs of research on how making mistakes help us learn, much of it funded by the federal Institute for Education Science. Some findings make intuitive sense. Some are completely surprising."