Book Reading #7 - Why We Make Mistakes

References:
Title: Why We make Mistakes
Author: Joseph T. Hallinan
Editor: Donna Sinisgalli, 2009

Summary:
In this book, Joseph Hallinan describes the psychological reasons behind why people make mistakes.

In each of the main thirteen chapters, Hallinan describes an error we have in our ways of thinking that causes us to make mistakes in our daily lives. Some of these include: skimming, believing we are above average, wearing rose-colored glasses, and multitasking. In each, he uses many different examples to illustrate not only how we make mistakes, but how the people and businesses around us manipulate these mistakes for their own gain.

Finally, in the conclusion, he describes some small changes we can make in our thought processes to fix many of these errors. The main one he provides is to "think small," that is, to pay attention to small details, since that is where most of these manipulators lie.

Discussion:
I really liked this book. Not only was each chapter entertaining to read, there was a significant amount I learned about how my mind works. Each chapter provided a lot of interesting questions that gave me something to think about during bus rides.

I really didn't think the solutions that he provided in the final chapter would be very useful, however. Many of the issues he describes in the book seem almost hard-wired to our psyches, so it is unlikely we could surpass them with any amount of self-training. Then again, thinking that way might be a mistake.

(Image courtesy of: Humanology)