Thoughts on learning from mistakes.
 

Hello all.

Personal thoughts ponderings as a kick off.

1) mistakes come in many guises.
2) learning from our mistakes plays a large part in our learning process.
3)mistakes have consequences.
4)ignoring mistakes has consequences.
5)such consequences may be really dangerous--soon or later.
6)perhaps the most dangerous of all however is to refuse to consider that we are or have been mistaken.--either on a personal level or communal level. This possibility is far more dangerous than simply making mistakes as result of simply not being aware that we are or have been mistaken.

Xx

As a quick addition to kicking off--

Somewhere in these considerations there needs to be a "because".

i.e. such and such was a mistake because it caused such and such consequence.

This consideration in its turn is then based upon by what criteria is such consequence to be judged?

We might then come to the conclusion that if a particular consequence has no importance then it is also not feasible or logical to judge whatever precipitated that consequence as being a mistake. ---finding this seemingly obtuse observation difficult to convey, apologies.

Xx

I thought the same... if you don't value the outcome then the fact of what happened prior to any consequences just becomes another data point. If one could go so far as to not even value life over death, then a 'mistake' that led to physical death would just seem more of the same, not dangerous at all.

but if you are attached to the outcome (and you most definitely are if you are vehemently opposed to the path you have taken being described as a mistake) then the laws of karma would seem to bite you at some point when the 'return' occurs...

Hello Falling leaves.

I think your first sentence in post 3 is a great improvement on my attempt to share similar thoughts in post 2.

Cause and consequence is a relationship upon which I ponder often but in terms which seem to me to be attempts at practical understanding.--with emphasis on "attempts", and attempts which may hopefully become shared attempts with no other ambition or purpose except to possibly--and jointly--further understanding. So thanks.

One sunny day in California, doing nothing special I was suddenly 'hit', like a light bulb
going off in my head ...as they say...

Because = be the cause

"Be" the cause..and you get everything.

(Maybe too abstract for left brainers here, I know.):tongue:

Love it! Makes sense to me.

Hello all.

Wondering what thoughts we may have about the "butterfly effect"--so called--being an illustration of the whole of existence being one inevitably inclusive, interconnected and interdependent process of constant cause and consequence ?

Xx

The "butterfly effect" concept seems to have come from playing around with starting conditions for theoretical models. I am not sure that there have been such observations in physical reality.

"He discovered the effect when he observed runs of his weather model with initial condition data that were rounded in a seemingly inconsequential manner. He noted that the weather model would fail to reproduce the results of runs with the unrounded initial condition data. A very small change in initial conditions had created a significantly different outcome.[3]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect

The concept of cosmic interconnectedness seems to be valid - at least in my observation.

There remains however the question of how such a system could come into existence. Is there a Causeless Cause as taught to me by Catholic priests?
*Deleted Hindi words, no definition again*

As I see it, the " butterfly effect" is a description of cause and consequence as a real phenomenon/mechanism which has so many possible real permutations and interactions that it is obviously not practical to describe each possible link.

However, not being practically able to describe every possible permutation and interaction does not seem to me to contradict the evidence that cause and consequence is a real phenomenon/mechanism.

Xx

Some time ago I thought on the same lines of cause-and-effect, learning from mistakes, even that the butterfly-effect made sense.

These days, not anymore.

I believe that focusing on mistakes will result into your making more mistakes. You should focus on how you want things to be in the present and the future, not on what you don't want to go wrong.

I believe that cause-and-effect is more of a backwards curve-fitting, and that you have to focus on the effect you want, and things will fall into place to achieve that effect.

The butterfly-effect idea comes from a misunderstanding of the nature-of-reality, and the belief in cause-and-effect. Big processes aren't the sum of / result from small processes. Reality is structured in gestalts, and gestalts of gestalts.