How Not To Be Wrong, James OBrien
How Not To Be Wrong, James OBrien
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How Not To Be Wrong
The Art of Changing Your Mind

Author: James O'Brien

Narrator: James O'Brien

Unabridged: 5 hr 21 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Virgin Digital

Published: 10/22/2020


Synopsis

Brought to you by Penguin.

There's no point having a mind if you never change it

In his bestselling How To Be Right, James provided an invigorating guide to how to talk to people with bad opinions. And yet the question he always gets asked is 'If you're so sure about everything, haven't you ever changed your mind?'

In an age of us vs. them, tribal loyalties and bitter divisions, the ability to change our minds may be the most important power we have. In this intimate, personal new book, James's focus shifts from talking to other people to how you talk to yourself about what you really think. Ranging across a dazzling array of big topics, cultural questions and political hot potatoes, James reveals where he has changed his mind, explains what convinced him, and shows why all of us need to kick the tyres of our opinions, check our assumptions and make sure we really think what we think we do.

Coloured with stories of changing minds from the incredible guests on his podcasts and callers to his radio show, and spanning big ideas like press regulation and brexit, through to playful subjects like football and dog-ownership, How Not To Be Wrong is packed with revelations, outrage, conversations and lots of humour.

Because in a world that seems more divided than ever, if you can't change your own mind you'll never really be able to change anyone else's.

© James O'Brien 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Reviews

Goodreads review by Andrei on November 02, 2024

Romanian review: În această carte, James O'Brien abordează câteva subiecte foarte controversate (white privilege sau drepturile transexualilor), dar și subiecte ceva mai puțin controversate (existența școlilor private, felul în care sunt percepuți oamenii cu tatuaje în societate sau ironizarea perso......more

Goodreads review by Sid on October 30, 2020

I thought How Not To Be Wrong was excellent. I don’t listen to James O’Brien but I enjoyed his previous book, How To Be Right very much and tried this on the strength of it. It’s a very different book, but just as good and just as important. The message of the book is summed up in its penultimate sen......more

Goodreads review by 8stitches 9lives on October 21, 2020

In his best-selling How to Be Right, James O'Brien provided an invigorating guide to how to talk to people with bad opinions. And yet the question he always gets asked is: 'if you're so sure about everything, haven't you ever changed your mind?' In an age of us vs them, tribal loyalties and bitter d......more

Goodreads review by Rebecca on November 21, 2020

I’m a big fan of James O’Brien I listen to him everyday on LBC and I couldn’t wait to read this book and I was not disappointed. This book is honest and heartfelt and I would definitely recommend.......more

Goodreads review by Gregg on January 15, 2021

"There's no point in having a mind if you're not going to change it," LBC broadcaster James O'Brien says at the very end of this excellent rumination on how to examine what we think and shift it when necessary. Hear hear. Being wrong is something I excel at. Twenty-plus years ago, if you'd asked (an......more


Quotes

A model of lucidity, humour and humanity - we should be thankful that we have him Times Literary Supplement

Simply brilliant ... Its calm but brutal honesty makes for compelling reading. This book is needed now more than ever

James is more right than ever -- particularly in our entrenched, binary thinking culture -- about the importance of being able to admit to being wrong

An admirably personal guide to the lost art of changing your mind. James showed me how often a change of mind is really a change of heart

The conscience of liberal Britain New Statesman

Highly personal and confessional, yet also a passionate and brilliantly argued appeal against the dangerous tribalism of our times

Classic James O'Brien - smart, analytical, self-aware and important to public debate at a time the toffs in power are taking it into the sewer

I know few broadcasters as consistently, forensically, brilliant as James O'Brien

Blending profound self-reflection with genuine warmth... the perfect book for a loud world that seems more divided than ever

Such verbal ability seems like a superpower The Times