---
title: "Learning from mistakes: the Don Quixote pattern"
url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2004/1/17/learning-from-mistakes-the-don-quixote-pattern-1.md"
canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2004/1/17/learning-from-mistakes-the-don-quixote-pattern-1.html"
published: "2004-01-17T23:16:00"
updated: "2004-01-17T23:16:00"
tags: [".Net Original"]
author: "Roy Osherove"
description: "Experience is built on mistakes. in the near future I'll try to describes some of the biggest mistakes I've made during my (short)career and the lessons that I learned from them. In this article I'll tell you about one…"
usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)."
license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
---

# Learning from mistakes: the Don Quixote pattern

By Roy Osherove January 17, 2004 In [.Net Original](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net-original)

**Historical article** · Originally published January 17, 2004; technical details may be outdated.

Experience is built on mistakes. in the near future I'll try to describes some of the biggest mistakes I've made during my (short)career and the lessons that I learned from them.

In this article I'll tell you about one of the most embarrassing moments in my career. A moment which holds a lot of frustration for me, even today, but one which I have learned a good lesson from for the future.

[Don Quixote Vs. ADSI & WMI](http://weblogs.asp.net/rosherove/articles/DonKihote.aspx)

## More in .Net Original

[All posts in .Net Original](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net-original)

- Jan 22, 2004

    ### [Convert a DataReader into a DataSet](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/1/22/convert-a-datareader-into-a-dataset.html)

- Jan 20, 2004

    ### [Is SmallTalk a real option?](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/1/20/is-smalltalk-a-real-option.html)

- Jan 17, 2004

    ### [Using SOA on existing N-tier applications](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/1/17/using-soa-on-existing-n-tier-applications.html)

- Jan 16, 2004

    ### [Three free recipes from "ADO.NET Cookbook"](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/1/16/three-free-recipes-from-quotadonet-cookbookquot.html)


---

## About the author

**Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery.

### Sites

- [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership.
- [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts.
- [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin.
- [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model.
- [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps.
- [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes).

### Social

- X: https://x.com/royosherove
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osherove/

### Contact

- Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7

### License

Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/