I agree both with Ryanâs overall evaluation (this is excellent) and that the âmistakesâ section, although laudable in intent, errs slightly too far in the âself-flagellatoryâ direction. Some of the mistakes listed either seem appropriate decisions (e.g. âWe prioritized X over Y, so we didnât do as much Y as weâd likeâ), or are the result of reasonable decisions or calculations ex ante which didnât work out.
I think the main value of publicly recording mistakes is to allow others to learn from them or (if egregious) be the context for a public mea culpa. The line between, âWe made our best guess, it turned out wrong, but weâre confident we made the right call ex anteâ and âActually, on reflection, we should have acted differently given what we knew at the timeâ is blurry, as not all decisions can (or should) be taken with laborious care.
Perhaps crudely categorising mistakes into âmajorâ and âminorâ given magnitude, how plausibly could have been averted, etc., and putting the former in updates like these but the latter linked to in an appendix might be a good way forward.
I agree both with Ryanâs overall evaluation (this is excellent) and that the âmistakesâ section, although laudable in intent, errs slightly too far in the âself-flagellatoryâ direction. Some of the mistakes listed either seem appropriate decisions (e.g. âWe prioritized X over Y, so we didnât do as much Y as weâd likeâ), or are the result of reasonable decisions or calculations ex ante which didnât work out.
I think the main value of publicly recording mistakes is to allow others to learn from them or (if egregious) be the context for a public mea culpa. The line between, âWe made our best guess, it turned out wrong, but weâre confident we made the right call ex anteâ and âActually, on reflection, we should have acted differently given what we knew at the timeâ is blurry, as not all decisions can (or should) be taken with laborious care.
Perhaps crudely categorising mistakes into âmajorâ and âminorâ given magnitude, how plausibly could have been averted, etc., and putting the former in updates like these but the latter linked to in an appendix might be a good way forward.