Joseph T. Hallinan

Il metodo antierrore

    (Why We Make Mistakes)

Newton Compton Editori, 2009    [essay, Ita, I3]

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When we answer tests we often pick the first answer that looks right to us, when really it isn’t. Sometimes we’re absolutely sure of what we’re seeing, and then we realize that our sight has made us a fiendish trick. Our stories should be accurate and true to reality, and instead we went completely out of track. Why do we make mistakes? Which inner workings lie at the basis of our mistakes? Joseph T. Hallinan analyses the more frequent ones, explains the relevance of details and proves that just those qualities that make us efficient cause us to be wrong. You’ll discover why a mistake that went unnoticed to a NASA scientist may hit a thirteen years boy. You’ll understand why multitasking doesn’t work, why men make some mistakes that women don’t, and why most of us persist in believing some notions that are completely wrong. An amusing and ruthless hunt for mistakes, flavoured with everyday real life stories and useful advices, like how to retrieve something that we hid too well. A fascinating trip into the science of human mistakes, which will hold you many surprises.

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This book doesn’t claim being a reference showing what is right and what is wrong.

It’s just an analysis of the workings underlying our decisions, and it’s then completely up to us realizing if, and how deeply, those workings affect our decisions too.

The valuable point is that most of these workings are knee jerk and unnoticed, and this book tryes to explain us how we arrive at most of our decisions and why we ought to be more careful about the real reasons that push us towards some of them.