Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error - Softcover

Schulz, Kathryn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061176052 ISBN 13: 9780061176050

Publisher: Ecco Press, 2011

Synopsis

The bestselling history of and investigation into human error by beloved New Yorker writer Kathryn Schulz

"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, Being Wrong explores 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 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.

About this title

Review:

"Intellectualism made fun! . . . Schulz's call to embrace flaws and errors as potentially beneficial will surely draw legions of follwers."--Newsweek

"Schulz draws on philosophers, neuroscientists, psychoanalysts and bit of common sense in an erudite, playful rumination on error."--Washington Post

"A mirthful and wise diagnosis of what ails us: Schulz dances us through science, psychology, and literature in a sparkling history of (and ode to) human error."--Publishers Weekly

"[A]n unusual examination of the virtue and peril of being wrong and of all the ways we think we know things that just ain't so."--Boston Globe

"Kathryn Schulz's brilliant, spirited, and necessary inquiry into the essential humanity of error will leave you feeling intoxicatingly wrongheaded."--Tom Vanderbilt, bestselling author of TRAFFIC

"Kathryn Schulz has given us a brilliant and remarkably upbeat account of the long history of human error. If Being Wrong is this smart and illuminating, I don't want to be right!"--Steven Johnson, bestselling author of THE GHOST MAP and EVERYTHING BAD IS GOOD FOR YOU

"Kathryn Schultz is engaging, witty and fascinating as she uses a full arsenal of academic research, colorful stories, philosophical arguments and personal anecdotes to create a riveting account of why we, mostly, have been wrong about being wrong."--Frans Johansson, author of THE MEDICI EFFECT

"Both wise and clever, full of fun and surprise...[BEING WRONG] could also be enormously useful--there are very few problems we face...that couldn't be helpfully addressed if we we were willing to at least entertain the idea that we might not be entirely right."--Bill McKibben, author of EAARTH: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

"A funny and philosophical meditation on why error is mostly a humane, courageous and extremely desirable human trait. [Schulz] flies high in the intellectual skies, leaving beautiful sunlit contrails....It's lovely to watch this idea warm in Ms. Schulz's hands."--Dwight Garner, New York Times

"Schulz possesses playfulness even as she brings the reader to tears... Being Wrong has a heartbeat."--Huffington Post

From the Back Cover:

To err is human. Yet most of us go through life assuming (and sometimes insisting) that we are right about nearly everything, from the origins of the universe to how to load the dishwasher. In Being Wrong, journalist Kathryn Schulz explores why we find it so gratifying to be right and so maddening to be mistaken. Drawing on thinkers as varied as Augustine, Darwin, Freud, Gertrude Stein, Alan Greenspan, and Groucho Marx, she shows that error is both a given and a gift--one that can transform our worldviews, our relationships, and ourselves.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0061176052
• ISBN 13: 9780061176050
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416