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We like you guys so much, we’re going to ply you with awesome stuff!

Every Wednesday for the next 34 weeks, we’ll be posting a new chapter from The Usual Error book! This means that you get to read the entire book, complete with illustrations, over the course of the next 8 months. (Impatient? Biased toward physical objects? You can always buy it here!)

As an added bonus, we’ll post a chapter of the audio book at the same time. We’re reading the book ourselves, with a little help from our friends, so you’ll get our quirky voices and inflections. It’ll be like we’re in your living room! Only, less crowded. EDIT: We turned the audiobook into a full-fledged product that you can buy from our store, professionally produced on a 6-CD set. Check it out!

But wait – that’s not all!

Every Wednesday will also be a Q&A day. We’ll post the chapter links. You guys read it. Sounds simple enough, but we’re going to complicate things! (In a good way.) On Wednesdays, we’ll turn the blog into a forum. Any and all questions pertaining to the chapter we’ve posted will get answered by one or the other of us, so save ’em up and throw ’em at us!

We really love sharing this information with everyone, so we’re giving it away (very slowly) to make sure everyone who needs it can get it. Helping you is our first and foremost goal.

We’re excited about Book Bonanza Wednesdays, so without further ado, let’s get this ball rolling! Begin transmission:

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Chapter 1: The usual error

The usual error is assuming that other people are just like you.

Assuming that others think like you, would react to a certain situation like you would, or value the same things you do — all of these are examples of the usual error. Psychologists call it projection bias: we project our own perceptions, opinions, and emotions onto another person, as if our experiences were theirs. We all do this. We do it all the time; that’s why it’s called the usual error. Making the usual error isn’t something to fear, it’s something to notice. In our experience, most miscommunications stem from the usual error. When you learn to recognize that it’s happening, you can turn arguments into opportunities for understanding.

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…and here’s the rest:

• Read The Usual Error ebook, Chapter 1: The usual error (web page)

(The reason we’re not posting the entire chapter in the blog is that for one, it looks better over there at its permanent home because there’s more room on the sidebar, and two, so people can find it easily and navigate through it without wading through lots of blog posts.)