mistakes

I have finished reading Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average by Joseph T. Hallinan.

I learned so much from this informative book so I'll summarize a bit here.

*As something becomes more familiar, we tend to notice less, not more. We come to see things not as they are but as we assume they ought to be.

*We tend to "distort" (lie) stories. The purpose of conversation is generally more about creating an impression than about imparting information. We want others to like us or think we're smart or strong or whatever. However, we tend to mislead ourselves as well as others. Alterations introduced in our stories become incorporated in our memory so that we "remember" things that aren't true.

*Men tend to forget their mistakes more readily than women.

*Almost everyone is overconfident so we tend to think we're above average. That is part of the reason people sign up for gym memberships that they don't use. Most gym members only go to the gym about half as often as they plan to go. This is also why credit card companies offer teaser rates. People jump on them even when the subsequent rates are much higher because they believe they'll pay off most of the debt while the rate is still low.

*The misattribution of errors is one reason we fail to learn from our mistakes. We haven't understood their root causes. Part of the answer lies in knowing where to look and part of it lies in our attitudes. It really interested me to read that the error rate for pilots is 5.6 percent versus 17.5 percent for doctors and nurses. In fact, studies show that doctors seriously misdiagnose fatal illnesses about 20 percent of the time. The reason for this discrepancy is that most senior pilots (97 percent) think junior staff members (first officers, flight engineers, flight attendants) should be allowed to question the captains' decisions. When surgeons were asked, only 55 percent thought junior staff members should be allowed to question their decisions.

*We are not good at predicting how we will feel in any given situation. A survey was taken in which doctors and other healthy people were asked if they would undergo a grueling course of chemotherapy if it would extend their lives by 3 months. No radiotherapists said they would do it. Only 6 percent of oncologists said they would do it. Only 10 percent of healthy people said they would do it. Yet, when current cancer patients were asked the same thing, 42 percent said they would do it.

*Hope impedes adaptation. In other words, if you're stuck with something, you learn to live with it.

Tomorrow I'll focus more on what we can do to avoid making mistakes.