We want our children to succeed in school and, perhaps even more importantly, in life. But the paradox(悖论) is that our children can only truly succeed they first learn how to fail. Consider the finding that world-class figure skaters fall over more often in practice than low-level figure skaters. Why are the really good skaters falling over the most?
The reason is actually quite simple. Top skaters are constantly challenging themselves in practice. (stretch) their limitations, they keep trying their best. They fall over so often, but it is precisely why they learn so fast. Lower-level skaters have a quite different approach. They are always attempting jumps they can already do very easily, (remain) within their comfort zone. This is why they don't fall over. In a superficial sense, they look successful, because they are always on their feet. Never (fail) in practice prevents them from making progress.
is true of skating is also true of life. James Dyson worked through 5,126 prototypes (原型) for his newest vacuum before coming up with the design made his fortune. These failures were essential to the pathway of learning. As Dyson put : "You can't develop new technology unless you test new ideas and learn when things go wrong. Failure is essential to invention."
In healthcare, however, things are very different. Clinicians don't like to admit to failure, partly because they have strongegos (自我) —particularly the senior doctors—and partly because they fear litigation (诉讼). The consequence is that learning from failure, healthcare often covers up failure. The direct consequence is that the same mistakes (repeat). According to the Journal of Patient Safety, 400,000 people die every year in American hospitals alone due to preventable error. healthcare learns to respond positively to failure, things will not improve.
