Are Errors Wrong?: Analyzing Roger Von Oech's 'To Err is Wrong'
The main idea of the article “To Err is Wrong” is most people assumes success and failures as complete opposites, but “they are both products of the same process”. According to Roger Von Oech, almost everyone, from an early age, are taught that right answers are good and wrong answers are bad; especially if you went to school. People learn that doing mistakes and errors is wrong. Roger Von Oech says that with a fail or succeed attitude, people aren’t going to be taking up many chances. With an attitude like this they aren’t going to learn from their mistakes. From another point of view, “to err is wrong” makes sense. He says that we have to sometimes perform small tasks, jobs, etc. without failure for our survival. If everyone were to do illogical, irrational thinking, then they wouldn’t last long. People should still realize the potential value of their mistakes, and use it as a stepping stone to a new idea. When Columbus was searching for a new India route he instead found new land, and Thomas Edison, while trying to build a light bulb he also found 1800 ways not to build one. Mistakes and errors have another purpose; they tell when to change direction. When things aren’t going smoothly, people think of new ideas. Roger Von oech mentions a client, a division manager from a high-tech company, asking his vice president of engineering what percentage of their new products should be a success in the market business. The answer he received was “about 50%.” The division manager replied, “That’s too high. 30% is a better target; otherwise we’ll be too conservative in our planning. In conclusion Roger Von Oech wants everyone to take advantage of their mistakes and learn from them for new better