Sean D’Souza’s latest ‘PsychoTactics’ article is titled “The Science of Making Mistakes”.

The Science of Making Mistakes
That may seem to you, to be the silliest headline ever. Why would you need to
learn how to make mistakes?  You’re already a pro at making mistakes. You don’t
need a how-to article to tell you how to make mistakes, right? But bear with me as
we explore why mistake making is a science.
At Psychotactics, we have a cartooning course
This course is designed to teach anyone (yes, anyone) to learn to draw superb
cartoons. But guess what? Most of the folks who join the course can’t really draw.
They probably haven’t drawn much since sixth grade. And if there’s one thing that’s
absolutely guaranteed, is that they’re all going to make mistakes in the course.
Except they don’t want to…
Which is normal. Who’d join a course to make mistakes? So the best thing is to let
someone get it right. If they get too many things wrong right at the start, disillusionment
sets in. And it’s hard to keep going if you look like a goofball.
It’s also hard for those supporting you to say “Wow, that looks great!” So the first goal
is to get as much right as possible. But getting things right is a tedious process, because
you’re not experimenting enough. And the irony is once you start experimenting you
make mistakes–tons of mistakes.
Which is why time needs to be set aside to make mistakes
So we enter a phase of speed drawing. In a fixed time of say, 30 minutes, the participants
are encouraged to draw as many characters as possible. And you only get a pat on the
back from me, the teacher, if you make a ton of mistakes.
This method appears to be contrary to what your teacher told you in school, but it works.
Suddenly the mistake-making brain goes to work, churning out 20 or 30 cartoons in less
than 30 minutes.
And suddenly you find it’s not so terrible to make mistakes after all
For one, you realise that your slow, tedious work is not a lot better than the quick, slap-dash
work. And that both, the slow, tedious work, and the mistake-making exercise, have
their roles to play.
It also relieves you of the need to be always right. And because everyone is making
mistakes at the same time, the entire exercise turns out to be enormous fun, instead
of a shameful activity.
The same principle is put into play when doing other courses 
In the Headlines course, we have a period of writing headlines correctly. And then a
period of writing every single headline wrong. To write the headline wrong, you have
to know how to write it correctly in the first place. So the brain is forced to focus,
but there’s no downside. You can’t get a mistake-making exercise wrong.
There’s just no way to get it wrong. You can make all the mistakes you want,
and not have the slightest fear or embarrassment. And this removal of fear is
what allows you to learn faster.
In effect, talent is just the elimination of mistakes
We see talent as something inborn. But it’s not inborn at all. Anyone can learn to
write headlines or draw cartoons, or do anything to an exceptional degree–if they
make enough mistakes and proceed to eliminate the mistakes.
But how can you eliminate mistakes if you don’t make them in the first place? The only
way out of this trap is to have a system to make mistakes.
Airline pilots go through a mistake-making drill
Pilots aren’t just taught to fly planes correctly. In training (and the training is ongoing)
they are put into situations where things go horribly wrong.
They’re then expected to work through those mistakes and work out a way to get
the plane back on an even keel. Top sporting teams don’t just work on their
strategy of winning.
They also closely examine situations where things can go horribly wrong and how
to pull out of it. And the reason is simple. Getting things right once is a fluke. You have
to get things right consistently, and often there’s no second chance. To be at this
level of readiness, you have to be prepared to make mistakes while learning.
That’s the key factor: While learning
This article isn’t about you goofing up just for the sake of it. No one wants to be
in a plane where the pilot is trying to get out of a tailspin. No one wants his or
her favourite team to be trying out a new maneuver in the middle of the game.
Most of the major mistakes need to be made in practice, so that when it’s show
time you’ve eliminated as many glitches as possible.
You need to get things wrong consistently and then iron out the mistakes
So if you’re a teacher, you need to institute a period for getting things right. And then
getting them wrong. If you’re a student of a skill, you need to announce that you
will try and get things right (and point out what you think you got right).
And then go through a part where you get things wrong on purpose, relieving you
of the tension and need to be right and perfect all the time.
Get things wrong. Make it a science project. See how many things you can get
wrong on purpose. And then fix the glitches later.
It’s the fastest way to getting things right.
Did you find this article useful? You can leave your comments here. I would
love to hear from you.

Sean D’Souza

©Psychotactics Ltd. All rights reserved.

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*IMNewswatch would like to thank Sean D’Souza and Psychotactics for granting permission to reprint this latest article.

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