24th March, 2025
🛑 Stop, 👥 Collaborate, 🎧 Listen
A rare Monday edition of Top Three…
🛑 Stop
A huge thank you to everybody who has purchased a copy of How To Be Wrong. So far we’ve shipped nearly 1,500 copies in various formats. And hopefully more to come.
If you’d like to join them you can buy your copy in all of these places:
Direct from the official Ctrl-Z store - get one, or buy in bulk and save 10-20%
Online at Book Hero - for next day delivery
In-store at various bookshops around the country:1
Auckland: Unity Books, The Open Book & Time Out, etc
Hamilton: Poppies Books
Hawkes Bay: Wardini Books
Wellington: Unity Books
Christchurch: Scorpio Books & University Bookstore
Timaru: Timaru Booksellers
Also at Paper Plus stores in Orewa, Eastridge, Gisborne & Porirua (and hopefully others soon).
You can also get a digital copy anywhere you buy ebooks:
I’m enjoying reading some of the responses - thanks to everybody who has taken the time to share those so far. I’m interested to hear which bits you think I got right and which bits I got … wrong! Please keep them coming.2
One of the patterns I describe in the book is what I call the "third user", which I’ve seen repeated by a number of different teams over the years when testing a new product: When the first user encounters a problem, we often dismiss it as user error. When a second user experiences the same issue, we might still consider it a coincidence. But when a third user has the identical problem, we realise this isn't about the users at all—it's a flaw in our product that needs fixing.
Yesterday I heard from a third customer who has purchased a copy of the book and discovered missing pages—or more accurately blank pages where there should have been words. I obviously need to follow my own advice and not dismiss this problem.
The book was printed by Bluestar in New Zealand. That’s a bit unusual these days—most books sold here are printed in Asia. But we made a conscious decision to keep it closer to home so we could have more control over the quality and timeframes.
At this stage I only have these three examples, and no other evidence to suggest it’s not a rare exception. But if there are others like this out there I’d like to know so I can send replacements. Please check your copy (in all three examples the missing pages were between page 50 and page 90). And get in touch if yours is the same, so I can “put it right”.3
👥 Collaborate
The irony is not lost on me: Writing a book that bangs on about the “myth of the lone genius”—how we tend to credit a single person for any successful startup, when it always takes a team—and then putting only my own name on the cover.
At the launch in Auckland I managed to get this photo with the other people who contributed directly to making this book:
From left to right:
Anna - who was not only the proofreader, ensuring that all t’s were crossed and i’s dotted, but also concierged the book through the final stages;
Toby - who edited the book, and took what was literally called the “flabby” draft and helped me craft it into a readable story;
Duncan - who wrote the introduction, where he described the important role he played in convincing me to write it in the first place;
Imogen - who did all of the design work, inside and out, and even tolerated me fiddling about directly in the InDesign files at one point while trying to sort out italics;
Claire - last but not least, who in her previous role was one of the first believers and who subsequently endured multiple early drafts and delicately helped me restructure those into something coherent.
I’m responsible for all of the bits you don’t like. The credit for all that’s left after that is shared with all of them.
🎧 Listen
They say you should never meet your heroes. But I disagree. I loved this chat with Joel Little at the Blackbird Sunrise conference in Wellington last year and I’m grateful that it was recorded. It’s been released this week as part of his Diaspora.nz podcast series, so now we can share it with everybody who wasn’t in the room.
Check it out on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
There is also a bootleg video available, if you prefer to listen with your eyes. 🙈
PS A number of people have asked about the audiobook version of How To Be Wrong. I’m learning there is nothing more painful than listening to yourself try and read your own words, while aiming to have it seem as natural as a conversation over a cup of tea. But I will get there soon hopefully.
Stand by for more information about release dates etc…
Header Photo: Breaking the Ice, Ice, Baby, Antarctica 2016, by Emily Simpson
If you would like to sell copies in your bookstore please get in touch.
If anybody would like to add a review on Good Reads, that would be appreciated. Likewise if there are any Wikipedia editors amongst my subscribers… feel free.
As somebody born in the late-1970s my approach to customer service is permanently influenced by the late great Alan Martin from LV Martin & Sons. I’m not the only one.