In this engaging dialogue, Chris Clearfield and Andras Tilcsik, co-authors of "Meltdown," explore how major disasters, from financial crashes to nuclear meltdowns, can inform better decision-making in our lives. They discuss the distinction between complicated and complex systems, shedding light on vulnerabilities that lead to failures. The guests share compelling anecdotes, like a Starbucks social media misstep, and emphasize the need for diverse perspectives and a blameless culture to strengthen organizational resilience and improve everyday systems.
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Origin of Research
Chris Clearfield's interest in system failures stemmed from observing the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
This interest grew as he learned to fly and studied plane crashes and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
insights INSIGHT
Perrow's Complexity and Coupling
Charles Perrow's study of Three Mile Island revealed that small errors can combine to cause large meltdowns in complex, tightly coupled systems.
These systems are complex due to interconnected parts and tight coupling because they lack slack.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Starbucks Campaign Fiasco
Starbucks' #spreadthecheer campaign backfired when negative tweets appeared on in-store screens.
The campaign highlighted how social media's complexity and tight coupling can amplify small issues.
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A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse
Thomas E. Woods Jr.
In this book, Thomas E. Woods, Jr. challenges the common narrative that deregulation and free markets led to the 2008 financial crisis. Instead, he argues that government interventions, such as those through Fannie Mae and the Community Redevelopment Act, were the primary causes of the housing bubble and subsequent market collapse. Woods also critiques government bailouts, suggesting they exacerbate the problems rather than solve them. The book provides a detailed explanation of Austrian business cycle theory and its application to the crisis, as well as a historical context comparing the government's response to the Great Depression.
Whenever a financial or technological disaster takes place, people wonder if it could have possibly been averted.
We begin our discussion getting into how they got interested in exploring how everything from plane crashes to nuclear meltdowns to flash stock market crashes actually share common causes. We then discuss the difference between complicated and complex systems, why complex systems have weaknesses that make them vulnerable to failure, and how such complexity is on the rise in our modern, technological era. Along the way, Chris and Andras provide examples of complex systems that have crashed and burned, from the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor meltdown to a Starbucks social media campaign gone awry. We end our conversation digging into specific tactics engineers and organizations use to create stronger, more catastrophe-proof systems, and how regular folks can use these insights to help make their own lives run a bit more smoothly.
The Art of Manliness 
