Careful!: The Surprising Science Behind Everyday Calamities - and How You Can Avoid Them - Softcover

Casner, Steve

Softcover

ISBN 10: 150981843X ISBN 13: 9781509818433

Publisher: Macmillan, 2017

Synopsis

The modern world can be a dangerous place, filled with fast cars, smart phones, drugs and extreme sports. Meanwhile, we humans are as fragile as ever. In fact, after a century of decline in injuries and accidental deaths they are on the rise again. The question is – why?

Steve Casner has devoted his career to studying the psychology of safety, and he knows that there’s not a safety warning we won't ignore, or a fool-proof device we can't turn into an implement of disaster. Based on years of research and understanding of human behaviour learnt as a research psychologist, Careful! is the definitive user-guide to avoiding everyday calamity. It will help us understand why we behave in such contradictory ways – insisting on fat-free salad dressing but then texting while driving – and explain the psychological traps that can lead us to the scene of an accident. By showing us how and when injuries happen, we learn what we should really be worrying about.

Helping to keep our fingers attached in the kitchen, our children afloat at the pool and teenagers safe behind the wheel, Casner shows us all the ways we can take control of our own safety and get through the day in one piece.

About this title

Review:

A terrifying primer on the absurd and humiliating dangers of daily life. Careful! illuminates the mental strangeness of accidents. They testify to our duality; they happen when we assert and defy ourselves simultaneously. (The New Yorker)

Casner convincingly argues that we all need to make a habit of being more careful. A scientist and a natural storyteller, he takes the studies, data, and safety advice we usually tune out and turns it into gripping, page-turning material. This is a how-to-guide for a new way of thinking about survival in a world filled with hazards and distractions. (Charles Duhigg, author of Smarter Faster Better and The Power of Habit)

Steve Casner is an authority on human behaviour, especially in the interaction with the ever-increasing automated systems of the modern world. He works at NASA where he is an expert in aviation safety, but he has extended his range of expertise far beyond that of airplanes...An excellent writer. (Don Norman, author of The Design of Everyday Things)

We can all relate to Steve’s blooper reel of everyday ways we hurt ourselves. Careful provides enough science and data to blow you away, but the real-life stories will have you laughing. This helpful book just might save your life. (Deborah Hersman, president of the U.S. National Safety Council and former chairman of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board)

Casner makes an overwhelmingly compelling case for safety. One of the most intelligent and impactful books; everyone should read it. (Library Journal, Starred Review)

Casner... offers a sharp, concise review of the things that can kill or harm us, how we contribute to the problem, and what we can do together to make us all safer... Although Casner employs a gentle sense of humor, the book's greatest strength is the author's encouragement of compassion for others in everyday life. (Kirkus Review)

Book Description:

Why is the accident rate no longer declining? Discover a new way of thinking about survival in a world filled with hazards and distractions.

About this edition

• Publisher: Macmillan
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 150981843X
• ISBN 13: 9781509818433
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336