Why We Make Mistakes
Joseph T. Hallinan
Summary:
Chapter 4 - We Wear Rose-Colored Glasses. The overall idea of this chapter was about the tendency to see and remember things in a way that is "self-serving," it makes us look better. Hallinan claims this is not done intentionally.Creepring determinism: suppressing some facts at the expense of others. He also explains that knowing the outcome of events also affects the way we remember past events, say predictions (hindsight bias). Stereotypes and conflict of interests also lead to misremembered events. Trying to disclose a bias does not cancel the bias, it even increases it ("Hey I warned you" Principle).
Chapter 5 - We Can Walk and Chew Gum - but Not Much Else. In this chapter, the concept of multitasking and how it leads to errors is discussed. Hallinan claims it is not possible to divide our attention into more than one event, we can only jump back and forth. Hallinan defines inattentional blindness as a condition where a person is looking directly at something but is not really seeing it.
Discussion: I definitively enjoyed reading both chapters; the only thing I'm starting to notice is that Hallinan is explaining his concepts through long examples. Which might be good in some cases, but it could also lead to forget what exactly the topic he is discussing is about. However, once you look closely and look for the concepts you realize the examples are really well linked to the topic.
The discussion about technology causing accidents was really interesting. The fact that it is intended to do good but ends up doing the opposite can take us back to design concepts. He even mentioned some things that could be done to the design in order to decrease distraction, but the problem is that these should be there since the beginning in order to avoid these horrible deadly accidents.
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