Being Wrong Reading Response

Being Wrong by Kathryn Shulz and Engineering

     "You are WRONG." The one sentence no one wants to hear, always give us a moment of epiphany that everyone avoids to have. We want certainty, we want truth, and we make sure we HAVE them. We make sure we are right. However, it is inevitable for us to make mistake as Augustine once wrote "fallow ergo sum": I err, therefore I am. In the book "Being Wrong" by Kathryn Shulz, she discusses about the psychology, reasoning, and experience of being wrong. Her idea of "wrongology" leaves us a valuable lesson that may make our lives much easier: it is OKAY to be wrong. In fact, being wrong is actually GOOD. This positive aspect of being wrong pointed out by Kathryn Shulz can be easily explored through aspects of engineering such as the ways in which design can cause errors, the implications of failure in design, and the reality that products often must fail before they can succeed.

     Firstly, there are several ways in which design can cause errors in engineering. Engineers often fall in love with their first ideas. That light of the light bulb they thought they had or have is hard to let go as "our steady state seems to be one of unconsciously assuming that we are very close to omniscient (Shulz, 4)." However, this love for one particular idea can cause narrow-mindedness and prevent engineers to see better, more functioning ideas. Moreover, it may trigger engineers to IGNORE such errors, reluctant to admitting their errors. In addition to falling in love with their ideas, engineers simply cannot predict how design works until people actually start using them. People's minds are unpredictable; depending on how people were shaped in what kind of society they grew up in, people may react to a product's design completely different from what engineers expect. 

     The hardest thing of being an engineer, however, is that although there are so many factors that lead to errors, engineers simply cannot afford to be wrong. In fields like engineering, "certainty is the best choice because doubt is a bad one - counterproductive at best, dangerous at worst" (Shulz, 166). For example, the implications of errors in engineering may cause massive economic loss to life-threatening injuries. Depending on the design, the product may not only bring safety and huge profit, but also danger and debt. Engineers are human and we are all aware that we will be wrong at one point or another; thus, we must try to limit our errors, and focus on being less wrong rather than completely eliminating being wrong (which is impossible anyway). 

     Those errors that engineers face - hopefully while they are testing for the product - do have positive outcomes just as Shulz argues in her book about how being wrong can lead to improvements. "Psychologists  love errors and misconceptions, for they give important clues about the organization and operation of our minds" (Norman, 36); and so does engineers. As the reality of engineering is that the product must fail before it succeeds. "Error, disguised as the light of truth" (Shulz, 33) gives us valuable insight to the potential of the product. Thus, the ability to embrace errors and to learn from it is truly important in the field of engineering. 

     There are indeed ways to lessen mistakes as Shulz points out. It is to be open-minded and democratic. We must "foster the ability to listen to each other and the freedom to speak our minds, " (Shulz, 311). Then the way we deal with being wrong will be much more productive; "realizing we can tell a better one: rich with better ideas, better possibilities" (Shulz, 339) will be the one beautiful skill we can develop by being wrong.