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Making a mistake is a completely human thing. From small blunders that go unnoticed to bigger miscalculations that cost a whole day’s work, it happens to everybody every day. Some of those we easily forget; some take a while to get over.

The mistakes documented in the list below are not ones you can easily leave behind. That’s because, firstly, they make quite an impression with their silliness. Secondly, many of them are either permanent or would require some serious effort to fix them. In other words, it’s not that easy to just brush them off as they’re always in your face.

Scroll down to check out the collection of images from the X account Major Mistakes and see it for yourself.

The testament to the idea that mistakes are very common is the amount of them we have experienced throughout history. Some instances could even take us back hundreds if not thousands of years. 

One of the most famous mistakes is the crash of the Titanic. A moonless night paired with an unexpected obstacle caused the loss of 1,514 people. However, as more people are continuing to look into the matter, more mistakes are being found.

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    Louise Patten, a writer and granddaughter of Titanic second officer Charles Lightoller, once revealed that the steersman of Titanic made a huge mistake when trying to avoid disaster. In a snap decision, he turned the wrong way when the crew identified the iceberg ahead. 

    You see, the steering systems in steel boats work in the opposite way compared to sailboats. This, together with the fact that this massive ship was going very fast, made the collision unavoidable.

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    Another major mistake that resulted in a wreckage of a vessel that, fortunately, didn’t take any lives happened in 1999. Mars Climate Orbiter was a robotic space probe that was designed by NASA to study the red planet. However, it didn’t succeed in its mission. That is because the company that made the spacecraft, Lockheed Martin, used US customary units while building it even though NASA used the metric system designing it. The silly mistake caused the orbiter to get too close to the planet and, subsequently, destroyed. 

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    Some mistakes, however, aren’t that unfortunate. In fact, one could call them lucky accidents. One of them is Ian Fleming’s discovery of penicillin, which made a huge impact on today’s medicine and earned him a Nobel prize.

    Apparently, he came back to his (messy?) London lab after his summer holiday and noticed that one of the discarded petri dishes with staphylococcus bacteria had mold in it. The thing that made him curious was the fact that the mold was surrounded by “juice” that protected it from bacteria. He, together with a group of other scientists, started looking into it and soon enough discovered penicillin.

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    #14

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    George Costanza
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    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I don't think this is a "mistake". More likely someone crashed into it and they've wrapped the column to prevent bricks from tumbling down. Presumably will eventually get fixed.

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    Another medical discovery that could be called a lucky accident is, of course, Viagra. Pfizer scientists were looking for medication to treat high blood pressure and angina, chest pain related to coronary heart disease. 

    During the trials, the scientists noticed that a common side effect of the drug was increased erections. Once the chance of the drug working as heart medicine was out of the window, Pfizer pursued a patent for erectile dysfunction medication that soon took the world by storm.

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    There are also mistakes that haven’t had such a huge impact on society, but definitely ruined people’s lives. Like the mistake of not checking whether you’ve won the lottery after buying the same numbers for weeks. That is what happened to one British couple who failed to claim their 3,011,065-pound (3,755,114 US dollars) win on time.

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    SobyKay
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    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I'd have to lock myself in at nite so I dont half asleep try to go to the bathroom in the middle of the nite, and you know, just DIE

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    The mistake is, certainly, unfortunate. The man had already made plans of ditching his job and traveling the world with money he didn’t yet have. Once it became clear that he would not be getting it, he felt like it had been “taken away” from him. He became obsessed with the lost millions and went into multiple legal battles over them. Soon, his marriage crumbled and he joined a religious cult.

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    CascadedFalls
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This would be such a nuisance. What if you need to put something in a drawer, but there's no more room left in the others?

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    #27

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    sbj
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    They put all their effort into painting numbers instead of moving the clock

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    Mistakes are often called “the human factor” because they are inevitable. Some of them are serious. Others simply make us cringe as we’re trying to fall asleep. We hope the images from this list will not haunt you at night. Instead, maybe they can act as a reminder to pay a little more attention when you’re working.

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    #28

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    The Scout
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This was probably originally meant as an express bike lane, so it would actually have made sense to cross this way. Only the pedestrians using it defy the purpose.

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    #30

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    Caroline Kimber
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I don't think I've ever taken a corner kick behind bars, but I'm always up for a challenge.

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    #36

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    BigCityLady
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    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I don’t think grandpa would want you to choose the interstate today, or EVER!!!

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    #39

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    #40

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    BigCityLady
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I think that this family is a little too codependent, wouldn’t you agree?

    Ray Finkle
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    "I'm sure you're all wondering why I gathered you here today."

    MS
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This is how our toilets were staged in the barracks in basic training in the military. The point was to dehumanize and break down our individualism.

    RL R
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    "Hey Billy Boy, how's your s******g doing? Mahn is gooing faaain, how's yours, Willie Ray?"

    Bettye McKee
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    New concept for a conference room. Now no one has to leave to go to the bathroom.

    Skip62
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I have nightmares where this kind of thing appears.😞

    Duane Ringlein
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Reminds me how the bathrooms were when I went through basic training over 50 years ago

    Some Weirdo
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This is very close to how it was in Greece I think, a small room with wooden toilets and you just had to look at each other awkwardly. and even grosser is that they didn't have anything like toilet paper, they had a literal sponge on a stick that they would all use to wipe. Only one stick. Lots of people.

    David
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    What country? Aside from the obvious about the grouping I find the plumbing interesting. American toilets have the sewer pipe right below the toilet. Or for commercial toilets many bolt to the wall so they can be mopped under. these toilets do neither and instead come out at a weird angle to the pipes you can see behind them.

    Timbob
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    How did you talk my cousin into photographing her bathroom ?

    Bubba Jones
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    You can take the man out of prison but you can't take the prison out of the man.

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    #42

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    Caroline Kimber
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    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Aww, and when the door is closed, it's a little door for your cat to watch you wee!

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    Alexandra Davis
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Surely this sign means the disabled entrance is straight ahead, just the sign is in a place where it's by these escape stairs? If it meant the ladder, it would have an arrow pointing to the right to the ladders?

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    Note: this post originally had 72 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.

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