"If you make an error, use it as a stepping stone to a new idea you might not have otherwise discovered"
About this Quote
Mistakes usually get treated like stains: something to scrub out fast so nobody notices. Roger von Oech flips that reflex into a creative tactic. The line isn’t offering comfort; it’s giving you permission to keep moving while you’re wrong, which is a far more radical instruction than it sounds. “Use it” is the operative phrase. An error becomes raw material, not a verdict.
The subtext is an argument with perfectionism and with the culture of optimization that punishes deviation. Von Oech, known for popularizing creative-thinking tools, is writing in a late-20th-century self-help/business ecosystem where innovation is praised but failure is still stigmatized. His quote bridges that hypocrisy: if you actually want new ideas, you have to tolerate the messy, inefficient path that produces them. The “stepping stone” metaphor matters because it’s pragmatic. Stepping stones are uneven and half-submerged; you don’t stop to admire them, you use them to cross.
There’s also a quiet reframing of agency. Errors “happen,” but discovery is something you actively do. The best ideas, the quote implies, aren’t always the result of genius marching forward; they’re often accidents you choose not to waste. It’s an endorsement of tinkering, of prototypes, of the lab mindset where “wrong” is simply data with better marketing.
The subtext is an argument with perfectionism and with the culture of optimization that punishes deviation. Von Oech, known for popularizing creative-thinking tools, is writing in a late-20th-century self-help/business ecosystem where innovation is praised but failure is still stigmatized. His quote bridges that hypocrisy: if you actually want new ideas, you have to tolerate the messy, inefficient path that produces them. The “stepping stone” metaphor matters because it’s pragmatic. Stepping stones are uneven and half-submerged; you don’t stop to admire them, you use them to cross.
There’s also a quiet reframing of agency. Errors “happen,” but discovery is something you actively do. The best ideas, the quote implies, aren’t always the result of genius marching forward; they’re often accidents you choose not to waste. It’s an endorsement of tinkering, of prototypes, of the lab mindset where “wrong” is simply data with better marketing.
Quote Details
| Topic | Learning from Mistakes |
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