Better By Mistake: The Unexpected Benefits of Being Wrong
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 audio 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.
"1100256420"
Better By Mistake: The Unexpected Benefits of Being Wrong
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 audio 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.
26.58 In Stock
Better By Mistake: The Unexpected Benefits of Being Wrong

Better By Mistake: The Unexpected Benefits of Being Wrong

by Alina Tugend

Narrated by Elizabeth London

Unabridged — 6 hours, 59 minutes

Better By Mistake: The Unexpected Benefits of Being Wrong

Better By Mistake: The Unexpected Benefits of Being Wrong

by Alina Tugend

Narrated by Elizabeth London

Unabridged — 6 hours, 59 minutes

Audiobook (Digital)

$26.58
FREE With a B&N Audiobooks Subscription | Cancel Anytime
$0.00

Free with a B&N Audiobooks Subscription | Cancel Anytime

$27.98 Save 5% Current price is $26.58, Original price is $27.98. You Save 5%.
START FREE TRIAL

Already Subscribed? 

Sign in to Your BN.com Account


Listen on the free Barnes & Noble NOOK app


Related collections and offers

FREE

with a B&N Audiobooks Subscription

Or Pay $26.58 $27.98

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 audio 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.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

In her absorbing first book, veteran journalist Tugend confronts a common but complicated subject: making mistakes. Beginning with two universal truths—people are not perfect and mistakes happen—the author first defines her subject as separate from "error" and in consideration of its outcome (mistakes have led to countless scientific advances, for instance). Tugend investigates the fear of failure and shame of messing up that pervade American society (though we're not alone); unsurprisingly, the fear starts early and is reinforced often. One of Tugend's recurring themes is that we not only can, but should learn from our mistakes, and chapters discuss major errors from Wall Street, the field of aviation, and the hospital floor, including a famous case of the wrong limb being amputated. These case studies put into perspective our daily errors and illustrate the progress being made in mistake prediction and reduction. And the distinction between "person approach" and "system approach," posited by James Reason in Human Error, is also addressed. While Tugend's study of gender differences in this arena seems to circle the issue without landing anywhere truly interesting, her analysis of saying "I'm sorry" is highly illuminating. Ultimately Tugend succeeds, by stripping mistakes of their power to intimidate and effectively redefining them into malleable, manageable learning tools. (Mar. 17)

Kirkus Reviews

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.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940170288076
Publisher: Ascent Audio
Publication date: 03/16/2011
Edition description: Unabridged
From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews