Good Mistakes

 

Having recently read Fermats Last Theorem by Simon Singh, one particular paragraph stayed with me.

Goro Shimura and Yutaka Taniyama were 2 talented mathematicians at the University of Tokyo back in 1954. But the two had very different methods of working. To quote from the book:

While Shimura was fastidious, Taniyama was sloppy to the point of laziness. Surpisingly this was a trait that Shimura admired: ‘He was gifted with the special capability of making many mistakes, mostly in the right direction. I envied him for this and tried in vain to imitate him, but found it quite difficult to make good mistakes.’

Good mistakes. I’ve always been a fan of mistakes in creativity and when trying to generate ideas, which is nothing new. But I love the idea of “good mistakes”. The two together seem at first to contradict each other but actually are a powerful notion - maybe that’s the basis of all creative ideas?

Comments

The root of creativity is the idea… Generating new ideas is really my problem, I always get this feeling of copying others work but I oftenly feel that’s not in my track… I’m getting stuck sometimes and don’t know where to start and produce ideas that would somehow incorporate new style.

I didn’t know that good mistakes could also lead into creativity.

Jolo / 14/03/2005

…or as we used to call them when I was at art college ‘happy accidents’.

I’m sure loads of ground breaking creative endevours have been the result of these “good mistakes” somewhere along the line.

I think the power comes in when one is humble enough to accept ones mistakes, then learn from and use them.

JT / 14/03/2005

“Taniyama was sloppy to the point of laziness”

my kinda guy!

jake / 14/03/2005

this would explain why jake admires me so much *cough*

Phil Sherry / 16/03/2005

I loved that book, Fermat’s Last Theorem is a great piece of mathematical history. I didn’t catch that point in the book, but going along with JT’s comment, I’ve often thought how interestingly some of science’s greatest acheivements have come about. Nice find.

clay / 17/03/2005

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