Is 'I'm only human' ever an excuse for multiple and similar mistakes?

[Someone Depressing]

The interesting thing about humans is that we have the capacity to learn individual details and construct scenarios from those details and avoid further mistakes of a similiar nature.

So if you keep making that mistake, then you probably aren't human. You're probably some sort of scaly, green mutant lizard from Lovecraft's wet dreams.

And even if you aren't, using this excuse just pisses people off. It's not even a good excuse.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

Mistakes exist so you can learn from them, to make yourself a better human being. Making more or the same mistakes just shows that you aren't willing to learn from them, so no, "I'm only human" is not a viable excuse.

 

[Nukekitten]

Uhm. Mistakes, if they honestly are mistakes, feel like they come with a more or less a built in excuse. I'd feel mean blamming someone for messing up and don't much see the point in it. The mere fact that it's a mistake means that you're not to blame. Doesn't it make more sense in that situation to try to have a discussion about what could be done better next time?

Not learning from a mistake however? That can be a fault. It can even be a lazy or malicious fault. (Or it can be a mistake, that happens too.) And it can be a fault on the part of more than one person - if you're a manager and don't help your subordinates learn from experience... well, you're not a very good manager.

However, I can't think of any conditions under which claiming to be only human is a constructive discussion to have. If something is legimately beyond the bounds of performance that can be expected of a person, then why aren't we talking about the specifics of the shortcoming humans have in this regard and how we can work around it? Whether we can get a machine to do it, or what suplementary processes need to be put in place.

In saying that they're only human, to my mind, someone is making a further mistake. And sometimes they're doing so as an aspect of wilfull blindness.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I would not know, I'm not human. I never make mistakes though, one of the upsides of being a kitten.

 

[Dalisclock]

Depends on the scenario.

You repeatedly make mistakes because you're not good at something or you're being forced to learn something in a way that doesn't suit you?

I'll go with that. I will never be a good dancer. I will always suck at it but I don't particularly care either.

OTOH, you do things you KNOW are wrong or unhealthy or stupid but you can't be assed to do it better? When you get called, you say it and then do it again?

Then it's just an excuse or a responsibility dodge.

Example: Carter Burke in ALIENS is revealed to be responsible for the colony getting wiped out by the aliens. Ripley calls him out on it, confronts him with evidence and threatens to have him prosecuted when they back. He immediately says "It was a bad call".

Considering Burke already knew this would likely end badly for the colonists and did it anway, it counts.

 

[Username Redacted]

What do YOU think ladies and gents. Is 'I'm only human' ever an excuse for multiple and similar mistakes?

It's an excuse and thus isn't something I'm particularly accepting of. Especially if it's coming from someone who's made the same mistake repeatedly. Whenever I hear this particular gem I tend to fill in the blanks. Something like:

"I'm only [a stupid] human" OR I'm only [a] human [who is apparently incapable of learning from my mistake or the mistakes of others]

 

[Godhead]

I would not know, I'm not human. I never make mistakes though, one of the upsides of being a kitten.

You can't always be a kitten Smurf. One day you'll have to grow up and eat of your own kitty bowl.

OT: Like many excuses, it depends on the context. You can't drive into a brick wall while making smoothies in your car and say "I'm only human". Forgetting to take out the trash on trash night once in a blue moon? I don't see much issue in that.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well it's always very simple to condemn others because your ass isn't on the line and you can claim all day to have never ever made mistakes. But if you ever actually want to understand the situation simply imagine yourself in their shoes, we really are human and robotic precision is something we can never achieve, so would you want to be bashed for shit that is impossible to avoid?
The only thing you can demand from people is to fix the situation and learn from it, that is the part we excel at, so if they are unwilling to improve then you can freely condemn.