How Not to Be Wrong

The Art of Changing Your Mind

By: James O'Brien

Narrated by: James O'Brien

Brought to you by Penguin.

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

In his best-selling 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' 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.

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

Life changing

I have recently discovered James’ work, being somewhat late to ‘the show’ as I’m an expat who has lived away from Britain for almost ten years.

I’ve got to say that his work is really helping me to shift from stubborn and Ill-informed (but convinced of the veracity of my opinions) to ‘woke’, a term that I will forever embrace. This audiobook has helped me on my journey. Thanks James.

Alka selzer to calm the gut wrenching of polarity.

Might help reduce emotions involved in the divisions between progressives and conservatives.
When feelings and being seen to be on the right team have eradicated meaningfull debate, James offers some lessons and techniques to put the cap back on the petrol can and move it from the fire. Sorry Mr. Bowie.

Well constructed and performed, James is a talent.

Enjoyable introspection. The race bit is sticking with me. Thank you, James, for helping move my perspective.

Honest and Challenging

Very much enjoyed the book. A truly honest and challenging look at prejudices and life.

Thoughtful, whiny, insightful, unfinished

I genuinely like this guy. I picked up on him through some Facebook videos, and liked what he was saying. And I agree with virtually everything he says here. Except. I find at times he gets a bit too whiny, off point, more about his mea culpas about being wrong, than the issue itself. And one glaring issue. He doesn't seem to recognize that his journey is not finished. I admire the courage to make about how wrong he's been in the past (though to be fair, he does seem to enjoy a victory lap now and then in celebration of his sacrifice). But he almost entirely fails to see his intransigence in the *now*. It may be splitting hairs, but his positions now, well considered and compassionate (and as I've said, most of which I wholeheartedly agree), do not seem to be held to same scrutiny or logical rigor as his previous "ignorant" positions. Virtually everyone believes they are right in their convictions, as he repeatedly attests, whether it stands to reason or not. So how can he honestly think he can give himself an objective assessment of his current ideas as "correct"? It very much comes off at times that he's reached full "James O'Brien-ness".

His theme really starts to get wobbly near the end. I feel that the art of changing your mind virtually turns into the art of abdicating your honest personal inquisitiveness in the name of quelling rising opposition. It's probably best to let readers discover on their own the specific issues in which I feel James lets external pressure defeat emotional honesty.

All that said and written, I enjoyed the book. I thought it was thoughtful, and though-provoking. Yet still with flaws. Too willing to bend over backwards at times, and too timid to take tough positions at others. And even more, unwilling to accept that others who he has assigned a kind of mystical wisdom could possibly be wrong as well. It all comes from a good place, and I am certainly not one who should judge, but it's clear that James is on a path, but he's not finished.

Makes you think about thinking

Listened over a period of two days in the car and at home. Would have taken just a day but had to do some work. Those who are certain of their rightness should listen and the problem is they won’t. Those who doubt their certainties already know what’s within the book but they can also listen and enjoy as James explores his own wrongness over the years and how easy it is to dismiss others’ lived experiences because of our “luck” in the lottery of life.