Great book, but buy the hard copy.

This is a really good handbook to human factors, particularly as applied to diving but the principles and lessons can easily be applied more generally. It is very well researched and draws on high-quality academic texts as well as real-life case studies from the author's own research.

I'm not a diver but I have an interest in human factors in aviation and decision-making and there was still plenty in this book to interest me. The technical diving issues are presented clearly enough not to detract from the overall messages about human perfomance, psychological safety and leadership/followership.

The book is very well structured as a handbook or ready reference, with chapters that can stand on their own with a standardised format. However, this is where the audiobook is let down by the narration. It's clear enough but there's just not enough variation in tone or sufficient gaps to distinguish easily where the case studies end and the discussion begins, and what I imagine would be a handy bulletised list just kind of merges into a staccato paragraph. Also at times the narrator puts the emphasis on the wrong words as if just reading the words on the page rather than with any understanding.

I do recommend the book, but if you are likely to refer to it then do buy the hard copy.

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Great content. Ignore audiobook, get ebook.

Definitely worth my time. The case studies are suitable for an audiobook format (poorly performed in this case), but the textbook part is not. I ended up getting a printed version.

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A must!

A must read/listen for anyone who is involved in any high risk environment whether for work or leisure

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Great book, poorly read

Fabulous content and I'll be listening again since there's so much value in there. Such a shame that the narrator adopts such a robotic, monotonous delivery. He clearly has very little understanding of the topic as he has made a number of errors, in which he gives totally the wrong accentuation to a sentence or puts pauses in the wrong place. For such a great book it would be worth re-recording using someone who knows the subject and can inject some passion and feeling.

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An essential analysis of the dive safety mindset.

Sadly some training organizations pay far too little regard to a safe methodology, it's as I grow older as a divemaster that I realise how good the training I personally received was, so much of my skill set was gained by diving for years at the beach I trained on, under the constant gaze of my instructor, now very good friend.
This book would have been a constant source of debate then. I'm just starting to re-listen to it.

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2 people found this helpful

A must read for every diver

An absolute must read for every diver especially instructors and technical divers. The concept is explained very well with relatable examples.

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