When is an individual most likely to make a serious mistake (say, on the job or at some task involving risk)? I recall research that suggesting a "seven year rule" that after seven years of doing something, one has acquired enough mastery over the job or task or skill that complacence begins to creep in -- and with it, vigilance drops and disaster ensues. Any leads much appreciated.
posted by adamrobinson on Sep 16, 2009 - 13 answers

Will my credit ever recover? I was trying to do better.. got a job, paid on time.. But I got rejected for a credit line increase today. Mind you, my current limit is already only $300! [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Jul 13, 2009 - 10 answers

What are some good examples of failing to learn from history? [more inside]
posted by Hargrimm on Jul 1, 2009 - 36 answers

What are stories like this about making huge mistakes, and then recovering from it? [more inside]
posted by ADoubtfulTrout on Jun 24, 2009 - 4 answers

How do you increase serendipity? [more inside]
posted by parudox on Apr 9, 2009 - 22 answers

I'm making a certain type of typo more and more frequently. Should I be worried? [more inside]
posted by grumblebee on Sep 22, 2008 - 36 answers

What to do (if anything) about a kid (Kindergarten) who cannot deal with failure/losing? [more inside]
posted by unixrat on May 23, 2008 - 28 answers

A few months ago I saw an article that listed 900+ mistakes that Fox News had made over the previous year. I thought I saw it on Mefi but I have looked everywhere and can not find it. Any help would be appreciated.
posted by Mr_Zero on May 12, 2008 - 2 answers

My W-2 says I paid taxes to both Indiana and California. However, I did not live or work in Indiana at any time during the year 2007. How do I go about getting this fixed? [more inside]
posted by mto on Feb 4, 2008 - 6 answers

I'm a native speaker of English but I pronounce some words incorrectly. What other words am I pronouncing wrong? [more inside]
posted by pravit on Dec 30, 2007 - 147 answers

I don't use blogger, but I post comments on a blog that does. I happen to run my own blog (impressed?), which I used to link through Blogger's "URL" field. Apparently Google has removed that field from the commenting form. Instead it goes to my "Blogger Profile" which of course is empty, and even if were full, it still couldn't link to my self-hosted blog. What is Google thinking? Anyhow, is OpenID my friend?
posted by apetpsychic on Dec 13, 2007 - 9 answers

How can I cope when I make mistakes? I'm starting to feel I'm failing in my career, and am very isolated. Warning - long. [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Nov 27, 2007 - 23 answers

I did something effed up and now I'm paying for it. [more inside]
posted by reallygoodgirl on Aug 12, 2007 - 33 answers

Is there anything one can do to fight a medical bill that appears to be incorrect? I visited the emergency room last fall. I paid a $100 copay at the time of service that appears to have never been applied to my bill. Despite several calls to the ostensible hospital billing office (really a cube-farm in Texas) pointing out some discrepancies, they've left the clock ticking, sent threatening notices, and are apparently determined to slash my credit rating if I don't pay *now*. What can I do? [more inside]
posted by weston on Jul 24, 2006 - 12 answers

I have many memories of people in movies, cartoons, etc. who while taking a photograph with a view camera remained underneath the darkcloth while making the exposure. However, the film holder should be cutting off the light to the groundglass and therefore they shouldn't be able to see any image. Is this just due to the ignorance of the movie makers or is there some reason why they are depicted this way?
posted by Bengston on Aug 12, 2005 - 11 answers

Can anyone provide an example in which an author creates a work that is later shown to have an fairly obvious flaw or factual error, that the author eventually acknowledges? I'm more specifically looking for the author's reaction, reply or excuse when presented with this error. The older, the better.
posted by milovoo on Sep 1, 2004 - 25 answers

I'm proofreading an OCR file of a 25-year-old book, and after I fixed it up the company (whose history it is) said I had to put back in all the original (non-OCR) mistakes (words spelled wrong, incorrect tenses, text inconsistencies, semicolons used miserably) for copyright reasons. I told them it's their copyright, and they can do whatever they want with it. No, they say, it's a historical record. It's also their money, so I'll do whatever they want . . . but are they right? Are misspelled words and poor punctuation a copyright issue? [more inside]
posted by LeLiLo on Apr 28, 2004 - 19 answers