Why do we make mistakes? Maybe we never learn.

It is inherent in our nature to make mistakes. We are not perfect machines or programs. Instead of asking, why do we make mistakes? I would ask: how many mistakes should I make to learn X?

To err is human, to forgive divine.

As @180 Proof regularly reminds us, getting it right, especially all the time, is nigh impossible; ergo strive to reduce error. The guy who gets an A⁺ is the one whose paper has the least number of errors, not because it had the right answers.

Any man is liable to err, only a fool persists in error. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

1... instead of how many mistakes, how big of a mistake will teach X?

:up:

Depends on the interpretation. How we "measure" the mistakes?

How much are we able to improve from the mistakes we make? Mistakes can highlight capability. Mistakes can go unmentioned, be erased, redone...they can be re-written, overridden, and forgot about the moment one realizes the error before anyone else notices... Mistakes are made to remind. Mistakes are made to prepare.

I think we make mistakes because (1) they are easier to make than not and (2) they are a consequence of not learning from previous mistakes which we or others have made. A mistake is an invitation to learn how not to repeat it. The motto 'Either win or learn' is useful for implying that we only 'lose' by not learning from our losses, failures, mistakes, etc.

Mistakes can be re-written, overridden, and forgot about the moment you learned that you knew better....regret. Mistakes are made to remind. Mistakes are made to prepare. — Kizzy

:up:

Better question would be why don't we make them? There are so many ways one can do something wrong (not limited to moral choices), but very few ways to make them right.

Is it because of desinformation, incomplete information or simply because it’s part of our nature? — Cidat

Because you cannot grow, learn and self correct without trial and error.
Evolution has been doing it for millions of years so that it can rebrand whenever the environment necessitates it.

We as humans are no different. A life without mistakes - without regret, doubt, frustration, shame, guilt and sadness would be very boring indeed. Without error where is purpose? Where is desire to better ourselves, to improve. What is meaning and free will without the dichotomy of good choices and bad ones, without the ability to make mistakes.

Achievement is meaningless unless the odds were against you.

:up:

I think the more productive question is 'why to we get it right so often?' If you think of walking down stairs, most of us are remarkably effective at the thousands of small and large movements involved in this. Even children. In the 3rd grade I used to intentionally trip/stumble while going down stairs and I learned through this to glide down the steps with the soles of my feet angling over the lips of the steps and never landing flat. 'Mistakes' are also how we triangulate new skills. Discovery and invention often are based on mistakes. Whoops, I made a mistake, I glided from asserting that the real surprise is that we can do things with rare mistakes to talking about the usefulness of mistakes.

We're all (genetic, re mutation) mistakes. Mistakes making more mistakes is what explains the population explosion.