The Mistake Wiki
An encyclopedia of the mistakes people actually make: what each one is, why the brain falls for it, and what it costs. Every entry links to real stories from people who lived it.
🧠 Human error
Human errorHuman error is not a character flaw. It is what happens when a system asks a person for something no pers…
Types of human errorNot all errors are the same and they are not fixed the same way. James Reason's classic classification, e…
Swiss cheese modelThe image that explains how accidents happen: not through one failure, but because several holes lined up…
Cognitive biasMental shortcuts that work almost always and fail in predictable ways. What they are, why you cannot swit…
Confirmation biasThe tendency to find, remember and interpret information that confirms what you already thought. The most…
Dunning-Kruger effectTo know you are doing it badly you need exactly the knowledge you lack. What the original study said, wha…
Hindsight biasOnce you know the outcome, it looks predictable. That illusion destroys your ability to learn from mistak…
Why we repeat the same mistakesMaking a mistake teaches you nothing on its own. What has to happen for an error to become a lesson, and …
🌱 Life
Learning from mistakesEveryone says mistakes teach you. Most of them teach you nothing. Here is what separates an error you lea…
ProcrastinationDelaying what matters while knowing it will cost you. What actually causes it, why motivation does not wo…
Fear of failureThe fear that does not paralyse you completely — only enough that you never really try. How it disguises …
Comparing yourself to othersMeasuring your life against what other people choose to show. Why the comparison is rigged from the start…
💸 Money
💼 Work
Why a wiki about mistakes
Advice tells you what to do. It almost never tells you what goes wrong, why it goes wrong, or what it feels like from the inside while it is happening. That is the part that actually stops you repeating it.
Each entry here follows the same structure — what it is, why it happens, what it looks like in real life, the warning signs, and how to avoid it — and ends with real mistakes shared by the MyError community.