The HA false alarm caused by hitting the wrong button excuse is total bullsh*t, and here is why ....

[Igel]

24. "Accident" and "mistake" are ambiguous.

If I click on a button, it might not be the one I wanted to click on. The accident was between what my brain wanted and where it told my hand to position the mouse and when I told my finger to click.

"Oops, I meant to click on 'scan' my drive not 'shred' my drive." The "are you sure?" option allows my brain the time to back up and undo the muscle-related screw-up.

On the other hand, it's also a mistake if I think I want to click on a given button because I misread it, misunderstand it, or simply think it's the right one to click for any other (incorrect) reason. The understanding is in my brain, and when my brain's given the chance a fraction of a second later to undo the mistake, it hasn't concluded there was a mistake to undo. "'Shred' is good in skiing, must be good here, too, and mean something like a 'really thorough, ace scan'." Uh, not.


It's the same split in meaning when somebody's killed by a shooter--a policeman or a civilian--and it's a "mistake." Maybe the person doing the shooting fired by accident or didn't know the gun was off safety. Or maybe the mistake was thinking the person shot was somebody else or doing something else but the trigger was nonetheless pulled entirely on purpose. We see the ambiguity sometimes, and when it's an issue of solidarity or belief or group, we collapse that ambiguity into giving just the convenient option.