Mistakes and Errors

In an op. ed. piece by a cognitive scientist I once was exposed to the distinction between mistakes and errors.
A mistake is when you step on the accelerator rather than the brake.
An error is believing that accelerators are brakes.
Why do people persist in error?
Because they have too much invested in it to let it go.
We unconsciously believe that we will be unhappy if we abandon the error, but we don't realize that the error is the cause of our unhappiness.
We think that if we abandon the error, our lives will be empty, but we don't realize that the error merely masks the emptiness of our lives and prevents us from living meaningfully.