I just rolled a botch on a skill learning attempt in my game. Woo, haven't we all? But it reminded me of a question I had thought of at UberCon but never really asked: Is it possible to learn a botch? That is, is it possible to botch and, having done the botch, learn to duplicate that same botch by doing it wrong the same way on purpose?
I think it gives you a heads up on doing it again. Like doing it accidentally, you have a starting point for doing it again.
You don't actually get a skill from a botch, but sometimes you get an idea for a skill--that is, this was something that went completely wrong, but you might be able to reproduce it sometime.
This assumes, of course, that you manage to undo it....
--M. J. Young