Why We Make Mistakes

Reference Information: 
Title: Why We Make Mistakes
Author: Joseph T. Hallinan
Editors: Broadway Books (2009)

Summary: In Hallinan's novel Why We Make Mistakes, he discusses the various reasons why, as the title suggests, people make mistakes. He discusses various topics, such as people's lack of observation skills, and how we only notice, "what we want to see." This is further explained when Hallinan mentions the decision making progress, and how people will often latched onto mostly insignificant facts.

Continuing on into the novel, Hallinan discusses the formation and recall of memories. His primary example is the "Rose Colored Glasses", or in other words, our tendency to view out past self better than we actually are. Finally, Hallinan brings up examples from topics such as multitasking, framing, our belief that we perform average.

Hallinan's novel focused greatly on the use of examples. In each section of the book, he told a clear, concise narrative, connecting the ideas with examples. In the conclusion of the novel, he gave the user several different ways that they can fully integrate the lessons from his book into the reader's everyday life.


Discussion: I greatly enjoyed Hallinan's novel. His book echoed some of the lessons that Normand had attempted to teach in his book. However, unlike Normand, Hallinan's book sounds less like a rant, and it knows when to stop using an example, and move onto something new. In total, the book was a very enjoyable read, and I would definitely be open to reading more of Hallinan's work in the future.