Book Reading #49: Why We Make Mistakes

Reference Information

Title: Why We Make Mistakes

Author: Joseph T. Hallinan

Publisher: 2009 Crown Archetype

Chapter 10: We All Think We're Above Average
Summary
This chapter discussed the fact that humans tend to think that they are above average and overconfident, which tends to create many human errors. The author presented examples such as advertising that takes advantage of overconfidence, counting on people to overestimate their self-control (like gym memberships). Calibration is used to judge how overconfident someone is, and it measures the difference between actual  and perceived abilities. The power of feedback, the illusion of control (as tasks get harder, the degree of overconfidence goes up), and information overload were also discussed


Discussion
I found it interesting that the author stated that almost everyone is overconfident, except for those people who are slightly depressed, as they tend to be realists. I also thought it was interesting that, while many people complain about how inaccurate weathermen are, the weather forecasters tend to be remarkably calibrated with a long track record of accurate predictions.


Chapter 11: We'd Rather Wing It
Summary
This chapter discussed the human tendency to not read instruction manuals. When it comes tasks of judgment, experts are often worse than believed, practice to form a library in the mind is essential to becoming an expert, and cognitive maps are used to solve everyday problems. Also, once people learn a particular way to do something, they are likely to stick with it, even if there is a simpler method.


Discussion
It is very true that people do not like to read instructions, so I found this chapter rather amusing to read. I did find it interesting that people do not like to learn new, simpler ways of doing things and that this reluctance leads to difficulties solving problems and the inability to think outside of the box.