While most of us would probably try to find the smoothest road to take, the route most desirable to us, most of these people don't actually get to take it, as they make mistakes and fail in some aspects sometime in their lives. These mistakes prevent them from taking the easiest possible route. In the meantime, when they make mistakes, they learn. Afterall, how one goes about achieving his goals depends on his existing beliefs about how the system works. When one fails to achieve his goal, it signals a misunderstanding about the system.

But when one tries harder to find an easier road, and does manage to find an easier road, he makes less mistakes. He is less able find out what is wrong with his understanding of the system.

By luck, or by diligence, he might just stumble upon a picture of the system as accurate as one who have made more mistakes. Thus, he would try to achieve his goals the same way as the other person might. In many aspects, he is similar to the other person.

A person who has made more mistakes is more likely to be able to understand the workings of the system better, but it is not a guarantee. It is possible to gain understanding of the system and avoid mistakes at the same time. An analogy would be that one who has lost more chess games is not neccessarily better.

While making mistakes can be helpful, people try to avoid mistakes. While unlikely, it does seem possible to avoid mistakes and gain a good understanding of the system. Perhaps, there is still the danger where one does not know what is wrong with his understanding of the system.

So should people make mistakes on purpose? In my opinion, no. Enforcing his understanding about what does not work doesn't teach one about what does. When one makes a mistake on purpose, he already has an idea of what doesn't work. Even without making this mistake, he would have avoided this route anyway. By making this mistake on purpose, he does not learn anything. He only makes his life harder, while trying to make his life easier by learning about the system.

If one think carefully before one acts, he is more likely to achieve what he wants. Life is not long enough to make enough mistakes to learn everything there is about the system. Making mistakes is a waste of time if one does not learn anything from it. That time is probably better spent playing. At least you enjoy yourself, and you wouldn't be under the impression that you know more than other people.