Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error
“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 PlanetIn the tradition of The Wisdom of Crowds and Predictably Irrational comes Being Wrong, an...
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“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 PlanetIn the tradition of The Wisdom of Crowds and Predictably Irrational comes Being Wrong, an illuminating exploration of 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, editor of Grist magazine, 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.
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Format: hardcover
ISBN:
9780061176043 (0061176044)
Publish date: June 1st 2010
Publisher: Ecco
Pages no: 405
Edition language: English
The first parts of this were a little slow to read, as I wanted to comprehend all the ideas. After that, a series of error examples were all quick to read and enjoyable. The overall conclusion, that error is tied to creativity, and indeed humanity, was well done. I may have to ponder on some of the ...
One of the best books I've read in years. Highly recommended. Not a self-help book nor an oversimplified psychological model, but a thoughtful and complex overview of what it means to be wrong, how we discern what is true or false, why we are put off by error, how errors and being wrong are intrinsi...
I have a very strong memory of the day my youngest was born. I can still summon the piercing scent of puddled broken water in a middle room of the second floor of our house. Problem is that my daughter was born before we moved into that house. Yet I, and hopefully everyone else who comes up short in...
There are a great many historical anicdotes in this book. By the middle I was pretty much convinced that a great number of people throughout history have been wrong about a thing or two.If this was my first introduction to the subject I would have liked the book more, so I can't be too hard. For o...
I recently won this book through the First Reads Giveaway. I was really excited about receiving this book because of the humor it insiunated on the back of the book but that's about as far as it went - the back of the book and then the conversation about pound cake after the table of contents. It wa...