The Field Guide to Understanding Human Error

The Field Guide to Understanding 'Human Error' - Sidney Dekker He hes a short review of his book on YouTube in 5 parts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw3SwEXc3PU

The field guide to understanding human error by Sidney Dekker

I'm almost done with The Field Guide to Understanding Human Error: http://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Understanding-Human-Error/... (http://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Understanding-Human-Error/dp/0754648265) It's a brilliant book written by Sidney Dekker, a "Professor of Human Factors and Flight Safety". The basic point is that the default way of understanding bad outcomes is what he calls "the Old View or the Bad Apple Theory". He instead argues for the New View, where "human error is a symptom of trouble deeper inside a system". Normally with a book like this, I read the first couple of chapters, say, "Ok, I get the idea," and can ignore the rest. After all, I both agree with and understand the basic thesis. But so far every chapter has been surprisingly useful; I keep discovering that I have Old View notions hidden away. E.g., when I discover a systemic flaw, I'm inclined to blame "bad design". But he points out that's a fancy way of calling the problem human error, just a different human and a different error than normal.…