Thought Log #2

In life, we all make mistakes. That’s because we’re only human and no one is perfect. Mistakes can actually be a good thing because you can learn from your mistakes. If you do something wrong, you know not to do it again or you know to improve on it. But to do that, you have to first identify the mistake and know what the mistake is. The definition of mistake is an error in action, calculation, opinion, or judgment caused by poor reasoning, carelessness, or insufficient knowledge.

The TOK ways of knowing include: sense perception, reason, emotion, authority, language, tone, etc. So in order to minimize and rectify a mistake, we can use our emotions, reasoning, and sense perception. Our emotion and sense perception might be “off” and that can get to us. How one individual think or feel towards something may not be the same as how another individual would. Our reasoning may also be distorted and this kind of go with the “opinion” part of the definition of a mistake. I don’t think an opinion is a mistake at all. An opinion is just how someone feels about something and is not proven. So everyone has a different way of reasoning which led to their opinion.

The most simplest way to minimize a mistake I believe is to think before you act. Think about what it is that you are doing first, then determine if that is right or wrong. For the most part, if it is wrong, it is a mistake. I like to think about the “what ifs” and the consequences or events that can happen if I do something but sometimes, I hate myself for that because that could be a lack of confidence or something. To correct a mistake, you have to see if you can actually make things right again. One thing’s for sure though, after the error, you can’t make everything normal again. It won’t be like it never happened even if you corrected it. Some things are impossible to correct and that could have been prevented if you thought about what it is that you are doing. For things that can be corrected, come up with a practical solution. Do something you can actually do or else you’re just going to make yourself look bad again.

Things we should do or know to make less mistakes to stay in school. Don’t drop out and actually try to learn because the more you know, the less errors you make. Most troubles and disputes come from misconception and misunderstandings. If we have knowledge on something or at least knowledge on how to solve problems, then we wouldn’t have all these troubles which means we’re making less mistakes. Sometimes, we really don’t know who is at fault. You could be just reporting something but you are not the main source or you could be reporting something and other people could be spreading it. In these cases, I would suggest to not blame anyone yet but to gather more information. That way, we aren’t making false accusations or jumping to conclusions.