@OkieSpaceQueen@scicomm.xyz
I think the difference to me is that a mistake involves what, in retrospect, was an incorrect judgement call.
An accident is something that happened passively, without intent.
It's absolutely a range, with overlap.
For example:
If I knock over a glass because I'm gesturing while I'm talking?
That's an accident.
.. is there an argument for delving into the decisions of glass placement, gesturing decisions, awareness of environment etc as choices? Sure. And some of those might even be addressable, meaning that *future* recurrences of the problem I might start thinking of as mistakes but for the most part, that was an accident.
Whereas,
I evaluated options when I hired a company to handle a container shipping need. (like PODS) One of the companies I could hire had a higher than average number of folks complaining of bad service, long phone waits, deliveries not happening on time, etc.
I chose to disregard many of those because they'd happened several years ago, and I think companies *can* improve when they get enough feedback. They had a pricematch that made them the most inexpensive option, clearly trying to stay in a market dominated by a single company. I'm a sucker for an underdog and I dislike monopolies.
After many hour+ long holds trying to sort out mistaken billing....
I now consider that a mistake.
On your second question:
Something you *know is wrong*? No, that's not a mistake.
Something that completely betrays your morals/ethics isn't a mistake.
Something that you knew would cause harm, and that whatever positives were in play would never outweigh that harm, but that you did anyway? Not a mistake.
Something you know has higher than average risk of a negative outcome, but that you legitimately believe you can make work? Or that you believe you can minimize harm from and is somehow necessary for a significant positive impact?
When that doesn't pan out the way you believed it could, I think that can be considered a mistake. But that is where it gets messy.
