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“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” That's some good advice.

• atoav 2y ago
  As an university educator I would add: Take risks and try out things at times/places where you can afford to fail, e.g. during your studies. Nowadays too many students put their chips only on safe-bet-projects during their study, which traditionally would be the one time in their lives where they could really try and fail etc. Sure a lot of that is due to economic constraints, which have gotten catastropically worse in the past decades, but trying out things that you know could fail means you are operating at the edge of your abilities, rather than in an area that is safely covered by them. And traditionally that is where the interesting lessons are learned. Learning from others mistakes is a good thing as well, but for that they also have to try things that aren't safe bets.
  • pictureofabear 2y ago
    There is a great bias against failure, even for seasoned academics. I always liked this quote from Feynman "If you’ve made up your mind to test a theory, or you want to explain some idea, you should always decide to publish it whichever way it comes out. If we only publish results of a certain kind, we can make the argument look good. We must publish both kinds of result."
  • mianos 2y ago
    If you are spending masses of money and time on something, there is little to no chance anyone in their right might would take any more risk than they have to. If you are living on a trust fund, sure, give something risky a try.
    • atoav 2y ago
      I might have to add that I am an educator at an art university and work in a country with nearly non-existent admission fees. Artists that don't risk things during their studies will have a hard time producing interesting things.