
How Complex Systems Fail (1998) [pdf] - henrik_w
http://web.mit.edu/2.75/resources/random/How%20Complex%20Systems%20Fail.pdf
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dang
Many posts, but one discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8282923](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8282923)

[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=How%20Complex%20Systems%20Fail...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=How%20Complex%20Systems%20Fail%20%5Bpdf%5D&sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=story&storyText=false&prefix&page=0)

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ryanmarsh
Fantastic discussion. Glad you posted it. I'd hate to have not seen these
arguments.

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sunils34
Richard Cook's writing and talks on systems have hugely shaped my thinking on
systems.

For those interested in more, he gave a highly entertaining talk on system
resiliency here and introduces a helpful model.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGLYEDpNu60](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGLYEDpNu60)

I also wrote a post summarizing how I think about Rasmussen’s model in
startups and web applications. [https://medium.com/@sunils34/managing-systems-
ecbf161066cf](https://medium.com/@sunils34/managing-systems-ecbf161066cf)

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pdkl95
> a highly entertaining talk on system resiliency

Thanks for posting that! It's a great summary and explanation of the _fail
safe_ attitude that should be the foundation for all complex systems.

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sjbase
It's worth noting this was published in 2000.

Interesting read though, I especially like "Failure free operations require
experience with failure" <\-- obvious, but easy to lose sight of.

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markc
These same principles are explored more completely and systematically by Nancy
Leveson in her writings, specifically
[https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/engineering-safer-
world](https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/engineering-safer-world) (free pdf) and
her yearly workshops at MIT (also free!).

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delias_
John Allspaw at Etsy talks about these safety culture luminaries all the time.

