Meltdown : why our systems fail and what we can do about it

Summary: "There is a shared DNA of catastrophes. Meltdown uses vivid examples--from dramatic failures and harrowing close calls to untold stories of effective risk management--to explain how complexity creates conditions ripe for failure. They show how biases and organizational practices obscure warning signs until it's too late. The authors emphasize that the complexity of some systems makes a problem difficult to diagnose. Worse, if parts of the system are tightly connected, these failures spread rapidly. A small trigger can push things toward catastrophe, like a misstep by a backcountry skier on a mountainside ripe for an avalanche. From the sinking of the Korean ferry MV Sewol, the subprime mortgage crisis, wrongful murder convictions, Target's disastrous $7 billion foray into Canada, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, and the biggest unsolved art theft in US history, Meltdown asks why failures happen over and over again and reveals what their seemingly disparate causes have in common. Disastrous events inone area can provide useful insights for other areas. Lessons from aviation and the financial markets, for example, can help us design more resilient power grids, build less error-prone healthcare systems, and better prepare counter-terrorism officers for emergencies. They also help us choose better financial investments, launch a new project at work, or purchase a new home. There is a quiet revolution to find solutions that radically reduce the risk of catastrophic failure--and don't require advanced technologies or million-dollar budgets. Useful lessons come from many places, including NASA's flight cognition laboratory, Israel's military intelligence agency, the UK's Department of Work and Pensions, Goldman Sachs, emergency managers in New York City, and a group of Sherpas who lead climbing expeditions to the world's highest peaks. Much like Taleb's Black Swan, Meltdown is essential and surprising reading for navigating our complex world."--