3 Cognitive Biases That Cause You to Repeat the Same Mistakes

Human flaws that lead to repeating mistakes.

The three concepts - Failure of Perspective, Ego, and Distance - can be mapped to several well-known psychological and philosophical concepts.

Failure of Perspective

It describes our inability to see the whole system we are operating within, leading us to believe our perception is the only correct one.

• Related Concepts:
• — Confirmation Bias: The tendency to search for, interpret, favour, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values.
• — Local Optimisation vs. Global Optimisation: In systems thinking, we often locally optimise (make things better for our part), which can inadvertently hurt the global system (the whole operation).
• — Dunning-Kruger Effect: Specifically, the part where a person's incompetence makes them unable to accurately assess their own competence and thus the validity of their own perspective.
• The Trap: By relying solely on our limited perspective, we miss crucial data points and feedback loops from the system, leading to flawed decisions that look right only to us.

Ego

This flaw characteries the defensive, competitive, and fearful part of the self that resists corrective feedback.

• Related Concepts:
• — Defensive Mechanisms (Psychology): The ego's job is often to protect the self-image, triggering mechanisms like rationalisation or denial when faced with information that contradicts our desired self-view.
• — Fixed Mindset (Carol Dweck): People with a fixed mindset believe their qualities are fixed traits. If the world gives negative feedback, it attacks their fundamental identity, so they defend their opinion of themselves instead of learning from the feedback.
• — Cognitive Dissonance: The mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual, who holds contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values. It's often easier to dismiss the external feedback, than to update the internal belief, which is painful for the ego.
• The Trap: The ego's fear of being wrong or inadequate blocks the critical feedback needed for course correction, ensuring the mistake is repeated to avoid a temporary blow to self-esteem.

Distance

This flaw highlights the problem of being removed from the consequences of our actions, which reduces the urgency to change.

• Related Concepts:
• — Feedback Loops: Effective learning requires tight feedback loops - a rapid connection between an action and its result. When results are far away (distant), the loop is broken or slow, making it hard to connect the decision with the negative outcome.
• The Trap: Without a clear, immediate connection to the pain caused by the decision, the brain doesn't register the mistake as a cost, allowing the underlying beliefs and behaviours to remain unchallenged and un-updated.

These three flaws combine to create a powerful inertia that makes personal and organisational growth incredibly difficult.

Passivity and Stagnation

It’s easy to convince ourselves that these mistakes come from circumstances outside of our control. Passivity means, that we rarely reflect on our previous decisions and attitudes and their outcomes.

Without reflection, we cannot learn.

Without learning, we are doomed to repeat mistakes, become frustrated, when the world doesn’t work the way, we want it to.

It is a negative feedback loop driven by the tendency to avoid accountability:

• Undesired Result Occurs: A mistake is made, or a negative outcome is experienced.
• External Attribution (The Conviction): We convince ourselves that the result stems from circumstances outside of our control., i.e., bad luck, other people's faults, "the system". This is the key act of avoiding ownership.
• Passivity Settles In: Because the cause is external, there is no need to change our own behaviour or attitude. Passivity sets in, and we take no action to reflect or adjust.
• Failure to Reflect & Learn: Without reflection, we fail to look at our own decisions and attitudes (the internal, controllable factors) that contributed to the outcome. This lack of reflection means no learning takes place.
• Repetition of Mistakes: Without new learning, the underlying faulty decisions and attitudes remain, ensuring we are doomed to repeat mistakes.
• Frustration and Falling Behind: Repeating the mistakes cause ongoing frustration, when the world doesn't deliver the desired results, leading to a sense of falling further behind.
• Reinforcement of External Attribution: The frustration reinforces the belief that the world is unfairly stacked against us, solidifying the initial external attribution and restarting the cycle.

This cycle is rooted in several fundamental human tendencies:

• Locus of Control

The core of this problem is the distinction between Internal and External Locus of Control.

• External Locus: Believing that outcomes are primarily the result of fate, luck, or powerful outside forces. This aligns with the "convincing ourselves that results stem from circumstances outside of our control." It leads to passivity, because if you can't control it, why try?
• Internal Locus: Believing that outcomes are primarily the result of your own actions, efforts, and decisions. This belief promotes reflection and proactive change.
• Learned Helplessness

When the cycle continues, and failure is repeatedly attributed to external, stable factors i.e., "I will never be successful, because the economy is rigged"), it can lead to learned helplessness, a state, where an individual believe they have no control over the situation and stops trying to change it, even when opportunities arise.

• The Power of Ownership

Attributing results externally, even if partially true, is unhelpful. Ownership isn't about accepting 100% blame; it's about accepting 100% responsibility for the response. The only way to break the cycle is through active reflection. Take an internal perspective, that allows for personal accountability and, thus, personal agency to change.

Breaking the Cycle

The solution lies in intentionally introducing active reflection and internal attribution into the process:

• Focus on the Controllable: Instead of asking "Whose fault is this?" ask "What part of this result was influenced by my decision, attitude, or effort?" This shifts the focus from blame to leverage.
• Establish a Reflection Habit: Schedule time specifically to review outcomes, asking structured questions like:
• — What was the desired outcome?
• — What decision did I make?
• — What information did I ignore?
• — What specific behaviour will I change next time?