Elogio del error

Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you hadn't made any mistakes? Pino Aprile did, and he came to an astonishing conclusion: there would be nothing left to tell. No unexpected loves, no plot twists, no decisions that at the time seemed fateful but turned out to be providential. To believe that mistakes are the enemy of a good life is, in itself, a grave error. This essay aims to rehabilitate the great misunderstood element of human history: error. Because the path of progress is paved with mistakes (and the occasional success). What is evolution if not an accumulation of genetic mutations, that is, of failures? Without errors, there would be no Divine Comedy by Dante, a wandering sinner who strayed from the "right path," nor Columbus (who sought the Indies and found America), nor so many discoveries that we celebrate as triumphs of intelligence but which were, in reality, stumbles of chance or ignorance. Keeping it in mind brings back the joy we lose when we beat ourselves up for having messed up.