Being Wrong
Adventures in the Margin of Error
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3.5 • 66 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The bestselling history of and investigation into human error by beloved New Yorker writer Kathryn Schulz
“Both wise and clever, full of fun and surprise about a topic so central to our lives that we almost never even think about it.” —Bill McKibben, author of Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet
To err is human. Yet most of us go through life assuming (and sometimes insisting) that we are right about nearly everything, from the origins of the universe to how to load the dishwasher. If being wrong is so natural, why are we all so bad at imagining that our beliefs could be mistaken, and why do we react to our errors with surprise, denial, defensiveness, and shame?
In the tradition of The Wisdom of Crowds and Predictably Irrational, Being Wrong explores what it means to be in error, and why homo sapiens tend to tacitly assume (or loudly insist) that they are right about most everything. Kathryn Schulz argues that error is the fundamental human condition and should be celebrated as such. Guiding the reader through the history and psychology of error, from Socrates to Alan Greenspan, Being Wrong will change the way you perceive screw-ups, both of the mammoth and daily variety, forever.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the spirit of Blink and Predictably Irrational (but with a large helping of erudition), journalist Schulz casts a fresh and irreverent eye upon the profound meanings behind our most ordinary behaviors in this instance, how we make mistakes, how we behave when we find we have been wrong, and how our errors change us. t is ultimately wrongness, not rightness, that can teach us who we are, she asserts. Schulz writes with such lucidity and wit that her philosophical enquiry becomes a page-turner. She deftly incorporates Wittgenstein, Descartes, and Freud, along with an array of contemporary social scientists and even a spin with Shakespeare and Keats. There's heavy stuff here, but no heavy-handedness. Being wrong encompasses the cataclysmic (economic collapse) and the commonplace (leaving a laptop in front of the window before the storm ). Being wrong may lead to fun (playing with and understanding optical illusions) or futility (the Millerite expectation of the Rapture in 1844). Being wrong can be transformative, and Schultz writes, I encourage us to see error as a gift in itself, a rich and irreplaceable source of humor, art, illumination, individuality, and change an apt description of her engrossing study.
Customer Reviews
Good stuff, excessive explanation.
Don’t get me wrong, this is a great book with great lessons about being wrong and seeing it as a way to improve, realize who you are, and see it as a way to life rather than being shamed and disappointed about it. My only negative point about this and is why I took out one whole star for it is that Kathryn, places an extreme amount of time and effort into history lessons and past examples in order for you to understand which in my opinion, makes this book was longer than it has to be. This way of explaining being wrong might help some, but it definitely didn’t add to my learning. Mentally, I was just waiting for them to finish the lesson so she could get to the point or I knew what the point was right in the beginning of the history lesson. Sounds like a negative review of this book but it’s not, just not a fan of history. Nonetheless, she did an excellent job passing her point and recommend to anyone who enjoys learning about the self.
Amazing
Great writing and science
Hard to get into
I had to use this for a college course. It isn’t a page turner. I really had to push myself to read it and found myself getting lost in what exactly the point was because there are so many quotes and examples. I wish it was more streamlined and to the point.