From Dog-Men to Penicillin: What You Can Miss with Perfectionism

From Dog-Men to Penicillin: What You Can Miss with Perfectionism

There's sometimes magic when my less-than-perfect vision and my less-than-perfect memory to perch my glasses on top of my nose combine to make me walk around in a blurry haze.

I once saw a dog’s head perched atop a man’s body on a walk to work. I’ve also seen tree branches floating in the air and people without facial features.

The hallucinations are surprising and entertaining and one of the many reasons I would never undergo laser surgery.

Now, before we consider a revolt against ophthalmologists, psychologists, teachers and everyone else who helps people improve their vision, let's heed the sage advice of Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert cartoons: "Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."

There's examples of wisely-kept mistakes everywhere. Take Spencer Silver: in 1968, Silver, a 3M researcher, tried to make a strong super-glue like substance. He failed, and only made a weak adhesive. Six years later, Arthur Fry, another 3M researcher, stumbled onto Silver’s sissy sticky and became the father of Post-it notes.

And there’s Alexander Fleming, of course, who was known as a brilliant researcher with a messy laboratory, careless work habits, and a habit of sneezing on cultures. In 1928, he threw away a culture plate, took off on vacation for two weeks, and came back to discover a mold growing on the throw-away.

It turned out the mold bullied bacteria. He named it "Penicillin" and it's cured everything from scarlet fever to syphilis for generations.

Years after his discovery, Dr. Fleming toured a perfectly sterile, state-of-the-art medical laboratory. The proud tour guide asked him what he could have possibly produced in those superior facilities.

Dr. Fleming's answer was a sweet, sweet success: “Not Penicillin!”