In 1846, Scientific American magazine said in regards to boat propellers that “It is truly astonishing that men of capital in England…suppose that a propeller of any form on the screw principle can compete with the simple Fultonian paddle-wheel.” In 2020, the magazine pointed out that the writer had missed the fact that as a ship rolls, more of one side of the paddle is submerged, which causes an unbalanced power output. The resulting steering problem is just one reason for the lack today of paddle-wheel aircraft carriers.

Everyone makes mistakes which is probably why the saying “Only those who do nothing can go through life and never make a mistake” is attributed to so many different sources. Mistakes are part of learning and you shouldn’t fear making a mistake. What you should fear is failing to learn from those mistakes.

And some mistakes turn out for the better – super glue, the Slinky, the pacemaker, penicillin, microwave ovens, x-rays and ink-jet printers. Which just goes to show that ‘mistake’ and ‘opportunity’ could be metaphors.