14 people says things!

1. Mistakes are the best way to learn.

   By Nick on March 9, 2007 5:12 pm

2. Mistakes pave the way to success.

   By David Krug on March 9, 2007 6:16 pm

3. When all you do is copy others you copy their mistakes, however you can’t make mistakes of your own.

   Making mistakes is when often times you learn the most.

   By Kyle Johnson on March 9, 2007 6:29 pm

4. I agree with Kyle. Mistakes are good if they are your own mistakes and only if you learn from them and make corrections.

   If you are just copying and not learning from it and changing it then you just contribute to and perpetuate the crap that is out there.

   By Jeff Adams on March 9, 2007 6:56 pm

5. I guess it depends how precisely you copy them. I doubt Darwin had Web 2.0 in mind but the principle is the same.

   Making mistakes is the best way to learn; that I agree with. I have learned so much more from fixing my mistakes than I ever did from copying others’ successes.

   By Andrew on March 9, 2007 7:22 pm

6. I think what Seth Godin writes about is more to the point.

   If all you do is copy, it has already been done. You are now in second place.

   Note: Seth Godin have not said this, but it is more or less what his book “Purple Cow” is about.

   The greatest mistake is not that they copy other people’s mistakes, it is that they chose that path to begin with. People do not want to follow other followers, they want to follow the leader.

   By Thomas Baekdal on March 9, 2007 8:13 pm

7. The great thing about other people’s mistakes is that you get to avoid them.

   The issue with copying depends on what is being copied.

   Are they patterns? User interface, UI models, interaction design, or the style of user-facing functionality? In which case you’re basing your project on models which increase the likelihood of your prospects having a familiarity with your interface.

   Are they business models or other foundation principles behind the project (a.k.a. “Just Another Youtube”).

   Then you’re in trouble because the project is offering no new value.

   A new project that uses, copies, steals and imitates existing interfaces and interaction patterns (social and otherwise) but offers new value to the user is a winner.

   It doesn’t even have to provide new functionality, just add a new value to pre-existing functionality and models (tumblr.net being an excellent example).

   By baldur on March 10, 2007 8:00 am

8. I agree with Jeff and Kyle. Mistakes are wonderful if you learn from them!
   

   “Take chances, make mistakes and get messy!”
   –Miss Frizzle

   That’s why I liked to watch The Magic School Bus when I was a kid.

   By liquid06 on March 12, 2007 12:29 pm

9. You shouldn’t copy unless you have a decent reason (like taking an idea that does not have open source alternatives, and making an open source version).
   But we do learn from mistakes.

   By Nick on March 13, 2007 2:02 pm

10. The main problem with copying other peoples mistakes is that you don’t realise they are mistakes as the other person did them.

    Some mistakes need to be made in life though for you to work out why you shouldn’t do something. Its like when you see the do not push this button. You know not to push it and the person who put it there knows what it does but you want to make that mistake so you learn from it.

    By Eddie Sowden on March 14, 2007 3:13 pm

11. Copying others is often cited as the wild wild west of the Internet especially regarding it’s growth. Copying others leads to many website or code samples but not original & diversified ones. Learning from others copied mistakes is often the bulk of most technical forums. It is those who with determination and research cause change and make new areas of code derivatives which provide the new wave of web 2.0 applications to grow.

    By Joseph Damano on March 24, 2007 12:36 am

12. Mistakes are errors :P

    By emarts on March 26, 2007 7:32 pm

13. Sometimes even if you don’t copy you still make mistakes. If we ignore the ethical part of copying, we still have this question: “Why should we be afraid of mistakes?” In my opinion, mistakes is what makes us grow, learn, get better, evolve. If there were no mistakes there wouldn’t be evolution.

    I came to this blog via 9rules.

    By EugenS on March 28, 2007 8:55 am

14. oh, you’re the CEO of 9rules. Silly me :)

    By EugenS on March 28, 2007 8:56 am

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