Book Reading #49 - Why We Make Mistakes

Chapter 10: We All Think We’re Above Average
Summary:
This chapter states that most people have a private conceit that they are above average and this causes many mistakes. The only people that do not think they are above average are the people that are depressed. Many people that believe their results will be above average because they are, many businesses take advantage of this to make money. Many people don't change their thoughts over time because of lack of feedback.  This overconfidence tends to go up as the tasks get harder. Many people believe that the more information we know the more expert we are when the fact is we just get more confident.  Multiple studies showed that having more information for tasks such as horse racing, investing, or reading did not give an advantage when they also knew the summary.

Chapter 11: We’d Rather Wing It
Summary:
This chapter is about being an expert and novices differences. Experts require tons of practices to become experts. A special kind of practice is needed. Practice must be towards improving memory towards the subject for a long time. Most people are not experts and do not have a large library of information to choose from. Based on this average people create maps in their minds of how the situation is supposed to be, even if it is wrong. Many people ignore instructions and usually do their own things. It is also said that when we learn something one way we usually try to stick to that way.

Discussion: 
These chapters were interesting because they discussed the overconfidence that I am sure all college students have felt. I thought it was really interesting in Chapter 10 when it was said that when people knew 40 things versus knowing 5 things the outcome was not favored towards the person who knew more. Knowing that we learn more from summaries makes sense because often when reading a large amount of material I get bored. Chapter 11 was kind of humorous to me because of how it said most people do not read instruction manuals. I'm a victim of this as I'm sure many others are but I do read the manuals when it's for something important. So I thought it was odd when nobody was able to wire the electrical plug or even install a car seat.