I love to collect great quotes. I have a page in my OneNote Notebook for quotes, gathered by year and season. I’m not really good at always remembering to write down where I got them, though. I guess I assume I’ll remember? But I don’t.
I have two that I want to share. One I’ll share today and one next week. I didn’t write down exactly where the quotes came from. I do remember that they came from one of the two books in the Monk and the Robot series by Becky Chambers. I’m just not sure which book. They’re both absolutely wonderful, though. And because I am an avid library user and I returned the books, I can’t look them up. So…you might just have to read the books yourself. Actually they’re novellas, if that makes a difference.
The first quote is: “The human species is designed to learn through trial and error.”
I can read that out loud several times, emphasizing a different word each time, and I get something new out of it.
The human SPECIES is designed to learn through trial and error. It’s part of our DNA. It distinguishes us from other species.
The human species is DESIGNED to learn through trial and error. Oh, so much in this one. First, we’re designed. We’re not an accident. And yes, it’s okay that evolution was the “how” – I don’t see any conflict at all. In fact, it means we’re still evolving towards our design! Moving on… making mistakes and learning from them is how we were designed and how we are built. We’re not built to be perfect. We aren’t built to be condemned for not being perfect. We are built to learn. It’s okay to try things knowing that we might make an error. We don’t need to be afraid of that possibility because that’s how we learn. We were made that way on purpose. We weren’t designed to think things into perfection before we do them… we experiment.
The human species is designed to LEARN through trial and error. “You live, you learn. You love, you learn. You cry, you learn. You lose, you learn…etc.” Thank you, Alanis Morissette.
The human species is designed to learn through TRIAL AND ERROR. I guess I could have separated these into two different things, but why? Trial and error is a process to me, a cycle. Try something and if it doesn’t work, try something else. Refine. Incremental improvement. Giant lucky leaps of progress. One step forward, two steps back. Teeny tiny shifts. Gargantuan shifts of epic proportions. Mood changers, game changers.
Yeah, yeah, yeah…I know it’s just a quote from a book. It doesn’t mean it’s 100% true or factual or should be guiding our lives. That’s not really the purpose of books, though, is it? Books are designed to tell stories and to make us think…hopefully to think something different than we already thought so that we can grow and evolve. (Insert rant about banning books here!)
In the meantime, remember these things: You are loved. We are all loved. Let’s all be kind. All of the above explains what I mean when I say, “And in all things – progress, not perfection!”
Love, and light in the shadows,
Maggie
