Doh! Learning Through Mistakes

As a PhD student, I often face tasks which are too difficult to fully plan out solutions. Sometimes it's formulating and solving a research problem. Other times, I am trying to craft a well written story and write a publication. Nevertheless, very rarely can I look at a problem and instantly see the path to success.

Instead, I HAVE to take a first iteration at the problem. DOH! 'New pad, crinkle it up, throw it out'. Repeat. It'll probably take a number of failures to gain any tangible progress at all. But, along the way, I am learning from my mistakes. Each failure teaches me something new and by the time I have a solution, it looks nothing like what I thought it would.

This applies more generally to life decisions as well. After graduating high school, does anyone know exactly what job they want? Does anyone have the next 20 years of their life planned? Most likely, the answer is no. Instead, people take on a similar iterative approach, learn along the way, and adapt.

Ultimately, the important lesson learned here, is not to be afraid of making mistakes. Sometimes the sheer size of the problem or magnitude of the decision can be enough to scare people into sitting idly, trying to carefully plan out a solution. I had a manager once who gave me an assignment and we were to meet a week later. His evaluation criteria was, "Present something at least 50% of what I asked for. If it's less, we will scrap it and start over. Otherwise, the following week present something that's 50% closer again." I like this approach [although the mathematicians in the audience will argue something above time to convergence :)].

Keep trying. Keep making mistakes. Keep learning.