> The point is that you are consulting an expert, and you don't want that expert to tell you about all their mistakes, because your mind is now occupied with doubting that expert. It's not rational.
In the situation where I'm consulting an expert - hired to fix a problem or find a solution - then I'd tend to agree with you.
But when I'm reading text from a person in my field in a subject area of interest (eg learning from a book), then I definitely want to hear of things that went wrong, and how they fixed them.
I think they're two different situations, and the one you described above isn't the correct one for a person who's bought a book to learn from.
It could just be us valuing different things in our learning though. :)
In the situation where I'm consulting an expert - hired to fix a problem or find a solution - then I'd tend to agree with you.
But when I'm reading text from a person in my field in a subject area of interest (eg learning from a book), then I definitely want to hear of things that went wrong, and how they fixed them.
I think they're two different situations, and the one you described above isn't the correct one for a person who's bought a book to learn from.
It could just be us valuing different things in our learning though. :)