Wrong: Why Experts Keep Failing Us And How To Know When Not To Trust Them (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
Completely awesome book. I think we all intuitively know that what's spewed forth from everyone from our doctors to the news to supposedly hard science must obviously be junk by the fact that it doesn't translate into solutions. But this book details the myriad ways that so much of what we hear deviates from reality. Turns out the answer to most questions is simply "we don't know".I only gave it 4 stars because it seemed to jump around a bit and I got lost in the organization of lack thereof. Overall a wonderful book, however. I highly recommend it. An interesting book.There are a disturbing number of ways that experts (credentialed experts, informal experts and the rest of us) can go wrong in finding the "right" answer. Poor data, fudged data, biases, blind spots, pressure from peers...In the end, the author seems to be saying that you can't really trust anyone (including him) to give you a silver bullet answer to any complex question. You have to listen to lots of "experts", use common sense, be aware of some of the pitfalls involved and become you own expert.
What do You think about Wrong: Why Experts Keep Failing Us And How To Know When Not To Trust Them (2010)?
Not very good. Rambling, and the section on the Internet already feels out of date.
—Itza
A fun and intellectually honest examination of why our experts are so often wrong.
—blah
Great summary of ways that experts are wrong.
—CPineda
