In statistics, there are two types of errors.
Type 1 Error: False Positive. E.g., someone does not have any disease, but a medical report falsely indicates some condition. A Type 1 error is an error of commission—something you do wrong.
Type 2 Error: False Negative. E.g.-Someone has a disease, but the medical report suggests that there is no disease. A Type 2 error is an error of Omission—something you did not do when you should have.
In life, we should all be worried more about committing Type 2 more than Type 1 errors.
- I should be paying attention to some distinct signals my body is giving me about my lifestyle. If I am not paying attention to those signals, that’s a Type 2 error, an error of Omission leading to bad health later in life.
- An opportunity passes us by, and we do not even notice it. This is a classic Type 2 error. Missing opportunities that go by because we are not seeing them must scare us more than the actual mistakes we commit by doing something wrong.
As the year is coming to a close and we enter a new one, it’s good to take a pause and ask ourselves, “what are the things I am not doing that I should be doing?”
It’s good to check if we need to address some Type 2 errors we are unknowingly or unconsciously committing in our lives.