Book Reading #39: Why We Make Mistakes

Introduction
Summary
As the title to this beginning chapter suggests, it introduces the ideas that are to be explored throughout the book. The author begins by describing mistakes and explains how much of the world around us is designed in such a way as to expect us to see things clearer and remember things better than we actually do. The author also defines “mistake” and outlines some of the topics to be discussed in the book: similar mistakes that happen, what a person can do to make fewer errors and understanding the role of context.

Discussion
Seeing as how I read this Introduction after reading the first couple of chapters, I noticed how he picked certain things from the first two chapters to mention in the introduction. Something I thought was interesting that the author mentioned was how we, as students, tend to go with our first answer on a test even when it might be better to change it. The author explains how this is also the case with investors investing in stock. Another place in which I think it can hold true is in writing. Once I write a piece of fiction, it’s difficult to go back and change it. A lot of writers say the hardest part of the writing process is the rewrite.

Chapter 1
Summary
Chapter 1 focuses on vision and how we don’t always see as much as we think we do. The author, Joseph T. Hallinan, gives several examples through movie mistakes and the door experiment, an experiment in which a person asking for directions switches places with another person passing through and helping carry a door. The author also explains the beer-in-the-refrigerator problem and how people have a quitting threshold when searching for something.

Discussion
I really enjoyed this first chapter. I think it’s really important that people understand why they make the errors that they do – if only that could help us not make the errors so often. One part of the chapter I found interesting that I did not include in the summary has to do with how handedness predicts which direction a person will prefer. A piece of advice in this chapter states that we should look to the left to find the shortest lines.