
Ask HN: Good books to read about failures of human systems? - rglover
I&#x27;ve always found the failure of large or complex systems failing to be interesting (e.g., the 2003 blackout of the Northeastern U.S. [1]). Are there any books you&#x27;ve read that detail failures like these and explain how&#x2F;why they happened and what was done to correct the mistake(s)?<p>[1] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Northeast_blackout_of_2003
======
smacktoward
The 9/11 Commission's final report
([https://9-11commission.gov/report/](https://9-11commission.gov/report/)) is
very good.

Also good is Edward Tufte's "PowerPoint Does Rocket Science"
([https://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-
msg?msg_id=...](https://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-
msg?msg_id=0001yB&topic_id=1)), on how NASA's deck-centric systems of internal
communication led to the loss of the space shuttle _Challenger._

------
josquindesprez
If you haven't seen it already, start with Feynman's appendix to the report on
the Challenger disaster:
([https://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/51-l/docs/roge...](https://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/51-l/docs/rogers-
commission/Appendix-F.txt)). Pretty much any of the reports put out by the
NTSB would fit the bill. They do a lot of what I like to call 'full-stack
debugging' of engineering (both of products and culture), where the stack
spans all the way from material science to management science. It's rarely the
case that there's a simple mechanical engineering explanation for the big
failures that they investigate. It's the confluence of multiple engineering
and cultural failures that causes catastrophes.

For a better look at the politics of investigations, try this article on the
Columbia disaster, which was on the front page here earlier this week:
([https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2003/11/columbi...](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2003/11/columbias-
last-flight/304204/)).

Alternatively, since you mentioned the blackout, there's a lot to learn from
analyzing the government response to Katrina, say, something like
([https://www.amazon.com/Disaster-Hurricane-Katrina-
Homeland-S...](https://www.amazon.com/Disaster-Hurricane-Katrina-Homeland-
Security/dp/0805086501)).

