I think it would depend on how good you are at mental modeling. If you are that rare person who is able to plan out the perfect pot in your mind then execute it according to your mental model, then you will have better results over simply making a bunch of pots that display your average skill. But that isn't most people. And some people don't even have the mental modeling capacity to reliably learn from their mistakes. (I have a friend who is like that--she almost never internalizes feedback from her own experiences, but instead always relies on an externa... (read more)
I think it would depend on how good you are at mental modeling. If you are that rare person who is able to plan out the perfect pot in your mind then execute it according to your mental model, then you will have better results over simply making a bunch of pots that display your average skill. But that isn't most people. And some people don't even have the mental modeling capacity to reliably learn from their mistakes. (I have a friend who is like that--she almost never internalizes feedback from her own experiences, but instead always relies on an externa... (read more)