Learning from our mistakes

"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me" goes the old expression. The theory is that a person might be fooled once by something unexpected but if the same thing happens and he is again fooled it is his own fault. This is why magicians never do the same trick twice in a row. The second time almost every person will discover the secret and then the thrill of seeing the impossible is replaced by the disappointment of "Oh, that is all it is?"

So you would think that once something showed it did not work a lesson would be learned. For example, if someone built a high-tech robot to perform police services...surveillance, reporting crimes, and so forth...sent it out on its first test run and rain shorted it out, would the proper response be "Oh, that was an expensive mistake" or would you rather hear "Officials have said the robot is a prototype but more will be produced in the future."

Excellent. No more sunshine crimes in Russia but if it starts snowing or raining you are okay to go ahead. They will be busy repairing their robot.