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The Logic Of Failure: Recognizing And Avoiding Error In Complex Situations | 
| Author: Dietrich Dorner
Publisher: Basic Books
Category: Book
List Price: $19.00
Buy New: $12.92
You Save: $6.08 (32%)
Rating:  44 reviews
Sales Rank: 19837
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1
ISBN: 0201479486
Dewey Decimal Number: 153.42
EAN: 9780201479485
Publication Date: August 3, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Why do we make mistakes? Are there certain errors common to failure, whether in a complex enterprise or daily life? In this truly indispensable book, Dietrich Dörner identifies what he calls the “logic of failure”—certain tendencies in our patterns of thought that, while appropriate to an older, simpler world, prove disastrous for the complex world we live in now. Working with imaginative and often hilarious computer simulations, he analyzes the roots of catastrophe, showing city planners in the very act of creating gridlock and disaster, or public health authorities setting the scene for starvation. The Logic of Failure is a compass for intelligent planning and decision-making that can sharpen the skills of managers, policymakers and everyone involved in the daily challenge of getting from point A to point B.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 39 more reviews...
 A MUST READ! July 5, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book should be required in school. It's an easy read and a good introduction into how complicated our society has become and how quickly things can get out of control.
Facinating and informative! January 29, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I got this book from a co-worker, and didn't know anything about it, but ended up reading it all in a few days. Very well written and fascinating look into reasons humans make mistakes.
Highly recommended!
 Over-promised and under-delivered January 24, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
The book got my juices flowing in the first chapter, especially with the reference to human interaction with dynamic systems and the tendency to "oversteer". I wrote my doctoral dissertation over 30 years ago on just such a phenomenon as applied to the broiler industry (yes, chickens), which behaves as an underdamped servomechanism. (I'm an engineer).
However the early promise of the book didn't bloom as I'd hoped. Rather than use real world examples, all of the author's principles are drawn from simulated experiments. As a doctoral student I was subjected to many simulated business game situations, and while they can be made complex to third and fourth generation consequences, life is more complex than that (think The Tipping Point and Jim Burke's The Pinball Effect).
The effort to draw principles in the last chapter suffered two defects: there are too many of them and they are shallowly explained in terms of real-world usefulness.
While I think the book is worth reading, it over-promised and under-delivered. I'd recommend speed reading it for high level content and avoid getting bogged down in the simulations. I highlight as I read, and the highlighting became less and less as the book wore on. That's the best evidence I have on the value of a book to me when I finish reading it and review my highlighting and notes.
A much more practical book (for me) was Managing the Unexpected by Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliffe.
Use common sense January 8, 2008
This book was clearly written and provided a great deal of food for thought. There are several useful concepts described here and I am glad I read the book. I recognized many of the habits and weaknesses in my own thought patterns. However, I was a little disappointed that the final analysis seemed to be: "learn common sense" from experience, perhaps by engaging in computer simulations of decision making. With so many interesting ideas presented throughout the book, I had expected something more profound in the final chapter.
Interesting, dense, convoluted... July 4, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Dense, detailed and often fascinating. Fluid writing despite translation from German. Those who are used to jumping to conclusions will find much to learn here regardless of the overall malfunction. Unfortunately, the promise shown initially is not fully delivered for several reasons. The author makes frequent use of his simulations, tests, and models and asks much of the reader who has only read a brief introduction to them. In the later chapters, it's more tedious to follow along with his constant references; furthermore, the book essentially becomes an argument for the use of computer-simulated research rather than a distilled analysis of failure. The last chapter feigns a comprehensive summary, but drifts away as the author ponders the process of determining the point of failure. It could be taken, then, as either (i) a technical, interesting but inconclusive study of the reasons for failure which focuses on a mere handful of examples; or (ii) an outdated, abstract examination of the process for examining failure, which does not consider alternative approaches and isn't thorough enough to be worthwhile.
If you're interested in note-taking and then drawing your own conclusions, then this book should be an excellent read as it's filled with detail. For others, it delivers a few very fascinating chapters about our cognitive biases and then fails to draw them together cogently.
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