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Comment by snickerbockers | Hacker News Reader

>Everyone makes mistakes — Lord knows I did plenty of stupid, immoral things when I was 17 — and there is always the opportunity for growth and redemption.

when did the definition of 'mistake' change to encompass actions done on purpose? a mistake is when your data is invalid because you did the math wrong, not when all your data is simultaneously false and plagiarized.

i don't mean to disagree with the notion that his entire life shouldn't be ruined over one incident at a science fair when he's a teenager, but let's not make it sound like this is a careless blunder that could happen to anybody.

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Those stupid, immoral things that the author did at 17 were also done on purpose. The mistake is in the reasoning that led to the decision to do the action.

Pai's mistake was _deciding_ to commit research fraud, and then doing it.

A mistake is not exclusive to actions, it encompass judgement as well. Misguided actions start from a misguided judgement.

Most mistakes aren’t accidents, plenty of accidents aren’t mistakes.

The definition of mistake has always included actions done on purpose. Consider the sentences:

Getting on that Boeing jet was a huge mistake.

The worst mistake I ever made was voting for Trump.

Having an intern give him a blowjob was the biggest mistake of Clinton's career.

In all of those cases the action was done on purpose. You are confusing the definition of mistake with the phrase "by mistake", i.e. "I ran rm -rf by mistake", which means unintentionally.

You are confusing mens rea and actus rea.

> when did the definition of 'mistake' change to encompass actions done on purpose?

It didn't change, it's always been that way.

From Google search: > an action or judgment that is misguided or wrong. > Example: "coming here was a mistake"

I believe you're confusing "mistake" with "accident".

I think it features in the song “we are the champions,” so before 1977. I think “I’ve made mistakes/people make mistakes” has been used to euphemistically describe a lapse of judgement for a really long time.

Or even better, the passive form, "mistakes have been made" :)

We generally consider anyone under 18 now to basically not have capacity to make decisions.

Therefore anything they do that is bad is a mistake.

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