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WHAT were you doing when you heard about the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001? Your memory of that moment may be vivid, but it is almost certainly wrong.

We are wrong about most things, most of the time – something we find easy to believe about others but are loathe to recognise in ourselves. Kathryn Schulz’s book covers every type of error, from trivial slips to great blunders. It could have been a tedious list, but turns out to be a compelling meditation on the human condition. By combining personal stories with research into learning and memory, Schulz exposes the psychological tricks we play on ourselves when we cling to beliefs in the face of the evidence.

Error, she says, is the ultimate manifestation of the gap between ourselves and the world outside, a reminder that each of us is fallible and ultimately alone. But it is also one of the best things about being human – the source of our creativity and the means by which we learn. If only we could learn to admit it.