4 ⭐️

A few good nuggets. Didn't age well due to large number of examples from the time the book was written.

Good, but it didn't blow my mind.

All about how we not only disown our mistakes, but also can get into some nasty things little by little and then are committed to a bad course of action. The main theory used is cognitive dissonance. Lots of anecdotes personal and historical. Very readable.

This is now one of my favorite books. It’s an absolute must-read to better understand ourselves, our loved ones (especially if you’ve had loved ones with narcissistic personality disorder and borderline personality disorder in your life, as their ability to craft delusional narratives to feel good about abusive things they do is particularly extreme), and the world around us. It’s informative, enthralling, and exceptionally well-researched.

I found "Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)" to be a marvelous read, seamlessly blending educational content with entertaining elements, complemented by nearly 50 pages of well-researched notes and citations. The book features an excellent layout and pacing, providing a comprehensive understanding of human behavior. It adeptly emphasizes the commonality of our struggles, the ease with which we succumb to self-justification, and offers valuable insights on reducing such tendencies.

The final chapter, in particular, resonated with me, offering clarity on the firm stances taken by individuals in my life. While I appreciated this perspective, I acknowledge that it may evoke dissonance in some readers.

In conclusion, I highly recommend "Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)" for its insightful content, thought-provoking narratives, and its ability to shed light on the intricacies of human psychology.

Particularly appropriate for the election's jarring reality checks, this is a popular study of scholarly research into how people make mistakes and then continue to hold on to them--confirmation bias, recovered memories, bad feedback loops, self-justification, grudges, blind spots, Reid technique false confessions, faulty memoirs (victors write the history, the defeated write their memoirs), revised history, magical thinking and other quirks of the human brain, all illustrated with vivid examples.

This book caused me to think differently about mistakes, and about myself.

Pretty interesting.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was well-written with fascinating examples, and while this paean to the power of self-justification was harrowing to read, in some way, the authors did a very good job of explaining the phenomenon and the many ways that it affects our lives and relationships.