May 16, 2012, 1:31 pm
QuotEnsemble #14 { on mistakes }

One of components of Flow
❝ Direct and immediate feedback (successes and failures in the course of the activity are apparent, so that behavior can be adjusted as needed). ❞

Flow (psychology) Wikipedia

❝ When asked for advice on painting, Claude Monet told people not to fear mistakes. The discipline of art requires constant experimentation, wherein errors are harbingers of original ideas because they introduce new directions for expression.
The mistake is outside the intended course of action, and it may present something that we never saw before, something unexpected and contradictory, something that may be put to use. ❞

Brainpickings

❝ Embrace failure.
True innovators are practically impervious to the notion of failure. Whereas the everyman might feel shame or embarrassment in making a mistake, the inventor sees an opportunity for learning. Edwin Land, the visionary co-founder of Polaroid and holder of more than 500+ patents, stressed the importance of viewing failure as a scientist would:

An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail. Scientists made a great invention by calling their activities hypotheses and experiments. They made it permissible to fail repeatedly until in the end they got the results they wanted. In politics or government, if you made a hypothesis and it didn’t work out, you had your head cut off. ❞

The 99%— What It Takes To Innovate: Wrong-Thinking, Tinkering & Intuiting
image from pigpogm @ Flickr