Tell someone about the mistake you made
Sharing your own error is more useful than any advice, and far rarer, because it costs something to say.
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Why it lands
Advice is cheap and mostly ignored. An account of a real failure — what you thought, why it seemed reasonable, what it actually cost — is both more memorable and more trusted, because the person telling it has no incentive to. It also does something advice cannot: it makes the listener's own future mistake survivable rather than shameful, which is what actually changes behavior.
How
Tell it against yourself, without the redemption arc. “I shipped that without checking the migration and took the site down for an hour” is useful; “and that's how I learned to be thorough” turns it back into a performance. Say what you would check now.
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