Learning by... Avoiding mistakes

[Cal Horner]

My two cents worth.

 I must admit I hadn't been following this thread but on a fine Sunday
morning while catching up on correspondence....

I found out a long time ago the best way for me to avoid mistakes was by
following that principle of engineering. The rule of modeling my answer of
the system or software I needed to construct before actually doing the job.

And that precept seems to have gone the way of the Dodo. I think that I can
prove it by asking the question: 

How many of you use programming flowcharts to prove your answer before you
actually begin to code?

From my experience over the past few years, I know that people are likely to
dive in and began coding before sitting down and thinking about the solution
first.

That's how I avoid mistakes. It's the old IBM adage - Think!