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Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error
Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error
Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error
Audiobook14 hours

Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error

Written by Kathryn Schulz

Narrated by Mia Barron

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

“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

In 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.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperAudio
Release dateJun 8, 2010
ISBN9780062012401
Author

Kathryn Schulz

Kathryn Schulz is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Foreign Policy, the Nation, the Boston Globe, and the "Freakonomics" blog of the New York Times. She lives in New York's Hudson Valley.

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Reviews for Being Wrong

Rating: 4.0792682414634145 out of 5 stars
4/5

164 ratings15 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I found this an excellent, thought-provoking book, written with clarity and wit.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A full review of nature of errors, why and what kind, there is much more that what it looks like with we are wrong
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    When I first got this book I actually didn't think it was going to be a book that I would enjoy. I'm not even sure why that is because I have just been nothing but fascinated, especially so at all the research this book must have required to write. The amount of work in putting the book together is not lost on me. My guess would be that this is one of those books that a college professor would assign to his class. I read it through once, and then reread each chapter once more if not twice for some. I have never taken any college courses but IO have self educated to a certain (non) degree. There is no doubt that I have really enjoyed this book, for I have penciled in some notes and highlighted sections, something I try to avoid doing usually. I am pretty impressed with the entire book, references and the authors personal references. All of which has really made for an interesting study of Being Wrong. I'm very pleased to add that this is one more of the books I've read that I will being easily entertained by and probably get more out of each time I go through it in the future.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book is an interesting, often amusing, look at being wrong. What makes us wrong? Why do we so often experience negative feeling when we make mistakes? Ms. Shulz's argument is that we should embrace being wrong. It is what makes us human, and what opens the door to learning, innovation and creativity.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    To be fair, I didn't get very far. I liked the premise and the introduction was clever, but there just wasn't enough to justify a book. Could have made a great, punchy article.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is a really interesting discussion of choice. She says need to be right is almost as strong as the need to eat, and then goes on to show how people, even when or especially when they are proven to be wrong, will fight fiercely to hold on to their beliefs. End of Timers who are confronted with the fact that the world didn't end as scheduled, cling to their belief that the prediction was right. She shows how, without even discussing it, impossible it is to convince a pro trumper of their errors in spite of overwhelming proof. She also has some interesting things to say about relationships, how when we fall in love we expect to have another person to see the world as we see it and help us live our best lives. Eventually, we have to realize that people see their own realities and then we have to decide if their version of reality fits well with our own.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Ok, I'm not done yet, and I will finish, but I've struggled with one of Schulz's major premises and in order to be able to read the rest of the book I have to say now: One cannot be wrong" about *opinions.* for example: I may get a divorce from the man I fell in love with 10 years ago, but I was not "wrong" to have spent those years with him. Regret won't get me anywhere - it's irrelevant. Instead it makes much more sense to say "I've changed my mind." Or: I may believe that people who believe in a God and a Heaven & Hell are naive, but I cannot say they're "wrong." I have no specific evidence to say that some version of what they believe can't be true after all (no matter how I personally "know" otherwise). Or: we all believe, and know, that abortion is wrong, but those of us who are pro-choice know that it is less wrong than restricting a woman's right to make decisions for her own body. Nor are political choices "wrong" - we vote for representatives and leaders who seem sympathetic with our priorities, ie education vs war, or, more universal health care vs loss of some free-market manueverability for the industry.

    My point is that "wrongs" of these types are easy to cope with for anybody who is thoughtful enough to read this book. Those people don't need to read it. However, those others who paint the world in "right vs wrong" and "black vs white" in the realm of *opinion* will *not* read this book. Which in my opinion is unfortunate; they're the ones who need to.

    I'd hoped, when I entered to win this, that I'd get help with how to cope more sanely/ effectively with each discovery that I'm wrong about something *factual.* So far not so much but we'll see when I get to the concluding chapters. Then again, I already use care, and until I've fact-checked with other conclusive sources, I do say, "To the best of my knowledge...." or, "Based on the information I have...." or, "In my considered opinion...." or, "Speaking for myself...." or at least, "I see often that...."

    -----------------------------------

    ETA: I'm done. I tried really hard to appreciate Schulz's effort, despite our disagreement about what the word "wrong" means. Iow, I decided to accept that she was using it very inclusively. But, I still don't think it's a very good book. She really doesn't say much she couldn't say in a thoughtful essay. It was much more philosophical than scientific, which *could* have been good *if* she'd presented it that way.

    Basically, she espouses that we stop thinking of wrong as bad, and embrace errors as the basis for further learning and growth, for creativity, science, art, and comedy, for effective relationships, and for a healthy dose of humility. And, maybe because she's young, and/ or a New Yorker, and/or a journalist, she assumes she needs a whole book that took her a long time to write to be able to tell us those things. Problem is, she is a journalist etc. I'm older and I'd've appreciated a little more care, a little more of a scientific approach. She kept falling victim to the error-generating strategies she was alerting us to - for example saying "we" all the time as if every one of her readers is just as pig-headed and scatter-brained as she admits to being!

    (Same problem I had with *Traffic* - lots of research and scientific citations, but neither writer actually used a rigorous approach to the arguments.)

    It does have lots of interesting anecdotes and bits culled from research, and a few insights I can use to feel more empathetic to the frustrated & frustrating people around me.

    Those of us who already know how to learn from our mistakes, laugh at ourselves when we err, think creatively by reading science fiction or playing social games, and have friends and family members with differing political or religious perspectives don't need to read this. And those of us who haven't learned how to be ok with being wrong aren't likely to read this. So, I recommend it only to fans of pop psychology who have several extra hours to kill."
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Like it says on the tin, this is a book about the agonies and ecstasies of error. Just as bats are batty and slugs sluggish, to err is human, according to our own cliches; Schultz argues that error is regularly a path to discovery and improvement, and that we need to handle error with more than the usual denial and repression. It’s charmingly written, though I’m not sure how much I learned from it in the end.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Excellent book. Provides a tremendous amount of insight without being dry or preachy. I highly recommend it to everyone who wants to understand people behave as they do.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is an exploration of what the author calls "Wrongology": the ways in which we get things wrong, how we feel when realize we were mistaken, how we deal (or fail to deal) with our mistakes, and how we might benefit from accepting or even embracing our own capacity for error. I've read a number of books on similar subjects, but this one has a somewhat different feel to it. It's less focused on psychological experiments and the exact ways in which our neurons misrepresent the world or our minds leap to irrational conclusions (although there is some of that), but instead takes a somewhat more philosophical tone. Schulz does still keep things fairly well grounded, though, in part by including detailed and interesting examples of people being wrong in various ways. It's also very engagingly written, with wit, intelligence, and heart. Definitely worth a look for, well, anybody who's ever been wrong about anything.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Generally, people can’t bear to be wrong because it’s stigmatised as a bad thing. Kathryn Schultz turns this premise on its head, pointing out that not only does error allow us to learn but our tendency to cover up rather than confront error leads to things going even more off beam than they already were. It covers criminology, philosophy, psychology and neuropsychology, illustrates them with aptly chosen examples and covers a large, complex subject in a lucid and engaging manner. A lesson in how to value error rather than abhor it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Error. What a great subject. Daunting as well. Schultz does a good job of covering some major ground in the history, philosophy, psychology, and science of error. Her language and writing style is fluid and engaging, her choice of quotes and anecdotal evidence often spot on. She argues, throughout the book, that error is an integral part of our intelligence, our progress, and a reminder of just how alone we are in the world.

    Reading Being Wrong, I certainly understood better why I hate being wrong, why I love to say "I told you so." and most importantly, I realized what triggers my "I told you so" response most in other people: their lack of acknowledgement of an error. And then I realized that, probably, other people have the same reaction to my stubborn refusal to admit my own mistakes. Will I change and be more, uhm, humble? I don't know. I often think we can never change much, maybe just a tiny bit. Time will tell.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    A book about how humans can be wrong. It had some parts that were pretty good, but mostly it was more abstract than I was interested in.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error turns the camera inward to our own personal experience of error. Kathryn Schulz writes that we relish being right: “Our steady state seems to be one of unconsciously assuming that we are very close to omniscient. […But of] all the things we are wrong about, […] error might well top the list. It is our meta-mistake: we are wrong about what it means to be wrong. […] it is ultimately wrongness, not rightness, that can teach us who we are.”In a gentle narrative filled with curiosity and even humor, Schulz explores philosophy, psychology, history, and the personal experiences of people being wrong (lovers, explorers, crime victims and economists, among others). Over four sections, she 1) defines error; 2) investigates how we get there (e.g. our senses, memories, beliefs, the data at hand); 3) examines how we feel about being wrong; and 4) encourages us to embrace error. Extensive endnotes and an index complete the book.She’s adamant that error isn’t an intellectual inferiority or moral flaw but rather something beneficial, a way of learning and becoming -- where, quoting the philosopher Foucault, “The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning.” Schulz writes, “When you were a little kid, you were fabulously wrong about things all the time”; she suggests that when we seek new experiences it is a way of plunging ourselves back into the childhood experience of not-knowing, where error leads to rapid learning.She also suggests that there is no actual state of “being” wrong -- we know we’re right and then we discover we were wrong and we transition to a new state of being right. And it’s those “hinge moments” of awareness that provoke the revelatory shifts that change us; it’s also our reluctance to acknowledge error and complete those transitions that keeps us stuck in painful life situations.It's an intelligent and deeply researched book, highly readable and highly recommended.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is an outstanding book dealing with belief and error, certainty and denial. There are many interesting anecdotes and philosophical asides. Altogether an excellent presentation and discussion of being wrong!