Author of quotes: Joseph Hallinan

Habit and skill in any case force us to see not more, but less nuanced. We begin to see things not as they are but as they should be, according to our assumption. Such a case happened in 2005 a few days before Halloween in the town of Frederick in the state of Delaware. The body alleged to have committed the suicide of a woman more than half a day hung on the tree, and, although most of that time it simply could not see unhappy neighbours and passers-by, the police about the incident hasn't been reported. <...>... the police arrived, when the moment of death had passed about fourteen hours. "Everyone thought that the decorations for the Halloween", - obscurite explained the wife of the mayor of the town, which by the arrival of the police was on the opposite side of the street amongst a small crowd.

Recently my eyes caught the newspaper headline: Man mistook the sounds of a porno in the DVD for the pleas of women for help. Now he is accused of entering into another apartment with sword in hand. The article was about a man named James van Iveren, and events occurred in the suburbs of Milwaukee. One morning van Iveren, who was then thirty-nine years old, heard the sounds from the apartment, located on the floor above. According to him, very clear and mixed sounds. The woman shouted. "She begged for help," said van Iveren. At first he tried to ignore the cries of the attention, but soon realized that it was simply impossible. Phone in the house was not, so the man couldn't call the police. And then he grabbed the only weapon he had - a family heirloom, an ancient sword, - rushed up the stairs and knocked the door in the neighbor's apartment... And saw the neighbor Bret Stieghorst, thirty-year-old student of the local technical College, who at that time watched a porn film called Casa de Culo (Culo delicately translated as "ass"). "The film was in Spanish, and I don't understand," admitted then to journalists Stieghorst. <...> finding no casualties, a failed Savior departed with his sword. And after some time it was raided by police. He was charged with criminal trespass with damage. Shortly about this matter, wrote all media. "Now I feel really stupid, admits van Yveren. - It was all just a big ridiculous mistake."

It turns out that people feel more responsible for actions than for omissions. Therefore, if we are going to miss, it is better not to do something than to do it wrong. Out, people tend to consider inaction as a passivity: I didn't do anything. And if he didn't do anything, it feels less responsible for the result. ... We think: if we are going to err, it is better to do nothing than to do something wrong.

We rarely learn from their mistakes, because it is often incorrectly defined by their causes.

... modern man is required to remember many different passwords, PIN codes and user names. Meanwhile, human memory captures this information very badly. As shown by one study in this area, 30 percent of people forget their passwords after a week, and after three months this figure is over 65 percent.