Once in a while you read something or hear something that really resonates. It stops you in your tracks and makes you think. For me, these moments often come from TED.

The power of TED

If you haven’t discovered TED yet – here’s a quick run down. Originally TED was an annual conference bringing together people from technology, entertainment and design. Now it is a collection of events across the globe which brings together remarkable people who have ideas worth spreading. In fact that is the mission of TED: to spread ideas. They have a website holding a collection of inspiring, thought-provoking lectures no longer than 20 minutes long. Investigate TED talks – all the lectures are free.

The power of trial and error

So I have just watched one by Tim Harford. He’s an economics writer. And his speech urges us all to embrace trial and error. He argues very successfully that many of the greatest inventions have come from a policy of trial and error. That we should all aspire to make better mistakes.

I like his thinking. I like it because he is urging us to try things. He wants us to pull away from building little models to solve problems. To reject our instinct to simplify the complexities of our world in graphs and charts. And he believes we should accept that for many things there simply are no correct answers. There is only trial and error. There are only better mistakes.

Watch it and see if you too find it fascinating. It makes me wonder how much more creative we could become if we embraced his ethos – if we chose to focus on the results of trial and error and not just the final answer.