Edward de Bono made a career out of pointing out that most arguments are structurally useless, and this book is him at his most blunt.

I Am Right, You Are Wrong is about how people get trapped in the need to be correct, how thinking hardens into positions that can’t move. He calls this “rock logic,” fixed, adversarial, obsessed with winning, and argues instead for “water logic,” something more fluid, provisional, able to shift shape as new information comes in.

De Bono pulls from everyday disputes, politics, and institutional decision-making to show how binary reasoning breaks down, not because people are irrational, but because the structure itself is flawed. It’s a strange book in that it’s both very simple and a little radical, especially if you read it against the current moment, where being right has become a kind of identity.

Viking (Penguin) hardback, first UK edition 1990. Clean copy with light shelf wear; no major markings or damage.