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A New York Times columnist delivers an eye-opening big idea: Embracing mistakes can make us smarter, healthier, and happier in every facet of our lives.
In this persuasive book, journalist Alina Tugend examines the delicate tension between what we're told-we must make mistakes in order to learn-and the reality-we often get punished for making mistakes, and therefore try to avoid them or cover them up. In Better by Mistake, Tugend shows that mistakes are everywhere, and suggests that when we acknowledge and identify them correctly, we can improve not only ourselves, but our families, our work, and the world around us.
Through fascinating research, Tugend reveals how trying to avoid mistakes can affect us from the earliest stages in our lives and shape us into adults who steer clear of risks and challenges. She takes us behind the scenes into cutting-edge behavioral studies; invites us into the high-stakes world of health care and aviation, where mistakes can cost lives, and delves into the art and science behind learning how to craft a sincere apology and accepting responsibility for mistakes.
Bold and dynamic, insightful and provocative, Better by Mistake turns our cultural wisdom on its head to illustrate the downside of striving for perfection, and the rewards of acknowledging mistakes and embracing the imperfection in all of us.
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Sometimes belabored debut examines why making mistakes and learning from them is better than always trying to be perfect.
Covering what seems like familiar ground despite the book's counterintuitive title,New York Times consumer columnist Tugend argues that the childhood admonition to learn from our mistakes is culturally undercut by another, more powerful message: Errors are dreadful, can bring punishment and must be avoided, concealed or never discussed. This tension, the author writes, often leads to the risk-adverse tendency to stick with the known, and causes trouble in schools, cockpits and operating rooms, among other places. Remedies range from parents taking care not to unknowingly instill an error-avoidance mindset in their children to simple pre-flight and pre-op checklists that keep flight crews and surgeons from making the same oversights that may have caused past accidents. Well-selected excerpts from studies and interviews with experts provide the book with depth, but only in the conclusion does the full force of Tugend's prose emerge in a strong finish, in which she vividly evokes the profound importance of apologizing. Elsewhere, as in a lengthy consideration of gender bias in how mistakes are perceived, the author verges on being silly. We must strive, she writes, to"create a world in which it is safe for both menand women to make mistakes."
Thoroughly researched but low-wattage illumination.
Introduction 1
1 (mis)understanding and (Re)Defining Mistakes What is a mistake? 9
2 It Starts Early How our children learn from blunders 41
3 "Fail Often, Fast, and Cheap" Mistakes in the workplace 73
4 It's Not Brain Surgery ... But What If It Is? Learning from medicine 107
5 Lessons from the Cockpit Aviation's approach to errors 143
6 Blaming You, Blaming Me Men, women, and mistakes 159
7 You Say Mistake, I Say Lesson Different cultures, different approaches 189
8 I Want to Apologize Saying "I'm sorry" 215
Conclusion 247
Acknowledgments 253
Notes 255
Bibliography 273
Index 285
A_Voracious_Reader
Posted March 30, 2012
A smart and very readable book, "Better by Mistake" reviews and explains the current research into why we make mistakes, how we respond to having made mistakes, and how we can learn not to repeat the same mistakes. Lots of amusing anecdotes, and some side trips into the diffences among cultures and between men and women.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged."Better by Mistake: The Unexpected Benefits of Being Wrong" by Alina Tugend is a non-fiction book which tries to explain how dealing with mistakes can benefit you and your work. While this book might be categorized as self-help, I found it to be more than that and thought provoking as well.
Journalist Alina Tugend examines what it means to make mistakes, how we pay for it and the hypocritical nature of our society when it comes to learning from them.
While "Better by Mistake: The Unexpected Benefits of Being Wrong" by Alina Tugend might be categorized as a self help book, I found it to be more of a business book or social commentary than the self help kind.
Ms. Tugend focuses on the hypocritical nature of our society when it comes to the subject at hand and how one is able to overcome the ingrained philosophy which we were taught. I found it very refreshing to take an honest look into our society where we are told to learn from our mistakes, yet get penalized and punished when we make them.
It was inspirational to read, an honest look about the cover-your-ass (CYA) culture we have become. How people spend more energy deflecting mistakes, cover them or avoid them instead of owning up, apologizing and learning something out of their faux pas. You can open up any paper on almost any given day and see how the political class in this country is bungling its way through avoidance and deflection, usually making a mockery out of themselves, the system and the people they are suppose to represent.
The author gives an overview of how successful individuals, or more likely industries, handle mistakes. From hospitals, airlines, schools and other industries handling mistakes does not necessarily invokes immediate punishment and after all, not all mistakes are equal.
I read this book after taking a week long CMMI course which is meant to teach one how to find mistakes at the initial phases of a project and learn from them. While I certainly recognize the importance of establishing a standard operating procedure (SOP), I also recognize the love affair many managers have with checklists. This love affair is so prevalent that in many cases the checklist becomes the project regardless of the product it supposes to produce.
The other issue I had in the back of my mind read is that while industries can make all the lists they want but if they ignore data than all their checklists are useless. For example, airlines consider being "on time" if the airplane leaves the gate on time even if it's just a few feet - but it doesn't matter if the passengers wait on the tarmac for three hours; or hospitals don't check incoming patients for MRSA viru
HBS
Posted March 18, 2011
Everyone is irritated by mistakes at some point, whether their own mistakes or others'. Why do we find it so annoying, when most of us were raised to believe that making mistakes is a sign we are trying new things and can often be a good way to learn? This book provides answers, describing the difference between "above the line" and "below the line" errors, and showing why some children are better at learning from mistakes than others. It also shows how people actually have learned from even egregious mistakes and how they have succeeded in preventing repeats. There are fascinating sections on professions where mistakes literally can be matters of life and death: in medicine and airlines. Throughout, the book mantains a sense of humor while delivering a lot of information that is easy to understand.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted April 10, 2011
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Anonymous
Posted June 7, 2011
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Overview
A New York Times columnist delivers an eye-opening big idea: Embracing mistakes can make us smarter, healthier, and happier in every facet of our lives.
In this persuasive book, journalist Alina Tugend examines the delicate tension between what we're told-we must make mistakes in order to learn-and the reality-we often get punished for making mistakes, and therefore try to avoid them or cover them up. In Better by Mistake, Tugend shows that mistakes are everywhere, and suggests ...