Monthly Archives: March 2014

P. 138 Many studies over the years have shown that men and women perceive and remember aspects of their lives in different ways— often from a very young age—and that the roots of some of our mistakes can be traced … Continue reading →

162 Information Overload What might explain the persistence of such an illusion? Part of the answer lies in the beguiling power of information. The more we read (or see or hear, for that matter), the more we think we know. … Continue reading →

p. 180 One-Trick Ponies Another problem with the bushwhack approach is that people tend to be one-trick ponies. If we learn to do something a certain way, we tend to stick with it. Psychologists refer to this mental brittleness as … Continue reading →

p. 189 The lesson here should be obvious: simplify where you can, and build in constraints to block errors. Looking for Root Causes …mistakes attributed to human error often have deeper roots elsewhere. This is one reason why we so … Continue reading →

p. 210 At first, this insight [the tiniest little change in circumstance can have big impacts on people’s behavior] may seem difficult to apply to our everyday lives because the connection between our circumstance and our (211) behavior often is … Continue reading →

p. 213 Think Negatively Also, the next time you have a major decision to make, ask yourself: What could go wrong? This may strike you as needlessly pessimistic and even downright defeatist; since childhood most of us have been prodded … Continue 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      P. 215 It helps, too, to beware the anecdote. Remember the Nutri-System example? How did … Continue reading →