Product Description
Failure is the most fundamental feature of biological, social and economic systems. Just as species fail—and become extinct—so do companies, brands and public policies. And while failure may be hard to handle, understanding the pervasive nature of failure in the world of human societies and economies is essential for those looking to succeed.

Linking economic models with models of biological evolution, Why Most Things Fail identifies the subtle patterns that comprise the apparent disorder of failure and analyzes why failure arises. Throughout the book, author Paul Ormerod exposes the flaws in some of today's most basic economic assumptions, and examines how professionals in both business and government can help their organizations survive and thrive in a world that has become too complex. Along the way, Ormerod discusses how the Iron Law of Failure applies to business and government, and reveals how you can achieve optimal social and economic outcomes by properly adapting to a world characterized by constant change, evolution and disequilibrium.

Filled with in-depth insight, expert advice and illustrative examples, Why Most Things Fail will show you why failure is so common and what you can do to become one of the few who succeed.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.0 based on 15 reviews)

Give this a miss - interesting concept, badly written

I was looking forward to reading about insights into the high failure rate we observe in different walks of life. I was disappointed to find instead a dull and verbose book, offering no new thoughts and with incoherent arguments lacking in rigorous analysis. The "Making Sense of Segregation" chapter held much promise, but held a tenuous link to the book's theme and offered no explanation of ethnic segregation other than weak social preferences (What about lack of economic choice for low-income earners? What about the high level of social integration observed for East Asians? Why dismiss the contrary evidence observed in London?). Give this rambling and self-serving book a miss.
April 02, 2008

Systems (Both Social & Economical) -- Growing Evidence of Fractal & Power Law Connectivity

I have two perspectives for the review of Mr. Ormerod's fine book. First - if you are new to this subject, the book is interesting throughout as it helps explain, or at least builds a framework to hang our hats own about why some things seem to succeed and others fail. There are multitudes of examples from the pet rock (succeed), to the Edsel (a considered failure).

Second - if you are familiar with the subject of extinction theory and dynamic systems, the book starts out slow, but really hits its stride in Chapter 8 "Doves & Hawks" (and forward) as we start to get into examples of dynamic theory and extinction theory/data. In Chapter 10 "The Powers That Be" we learn that systems in which the connections are not random but follow a power law have completely different properties than ones that do, since it is the structure of the connections between the component parts (i.e. agents) which gives systems their distinctive and characteristic features.

No, don't be afraid, as this is not a technical book as I make it out to be as all the examples are easy to read and comprehend. If you are interested in this subject, other fine books to review are Ubiquity by Mark Buchanan, The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, or Deep Simplicity by John Gribbin.

May 26, 2007

Why the subject of economics is in disequilibrium.

This book is the follow up to the excellent Butterfly Economics.

As I write this review, a leading conservative commentator on a television show broadcast by the Fox News Channel, was stating that the US economy was doing very well. This statement seemed to me to be at odds with the reality as I observe it with For Sale signs springing up almost daily like mushrooms, the lower middle classes and working class are seeing their real incomes eroded, with inflation under control while prices are rising in the shops and at the pumps and where, despite rising interest rates the dollar is falling.

Like meteorologists, economists do not seem to be held accountable for their failed forecasts and predictions. Despite tremendous advances in mathematics and statistics as a society we are no closer to being able to explain how the economy works and if, as former President Bill Clinton so ill-eloquently put it "it's the economy stupid", how does the present incumbent not fix the problems.

This introductory guide to an alternative perspective on economics lays a foundation to the current economics paradigm. Deliberately written in (mostly) non-technical terms, Ormerod's book harkens back to the time of Keynes and presents an exposition which most adults with a rudimentary education can follow. This is a deliberate challenge to the prevailing orthodoxy which asserts that economics is a subject which can only be understood by virtue of advanced mathematical tools thereby excluding the majority of the populace.

Ormerod examines some of the failures of the current discipline to even describe some phenomenoa accurately and ascribes much of thess failures to the central role played by the concept of equilibrium, in particular general euilibrium, which predominates much of modern economics and has done for some sixty years or so. However, the author is clearly concious of the need for construction as well as demolition and he seeks to offer the basis of an alternative prospectus.

Although essentially a descriptive text, Ormerod's book carefully provides some clues to the alternative paradigm on offer. he supports his arguments with reference to works of others in the emergent disciplines which illuminate this perspective as well as drawing intellectual support from the work of Hayek and Schumpeter to name but two. Not only that but for those who wish to pursue his arguments further he provides links to more advanced, and more mathematical, sources.

Ormerod is gentle with the economics profession. They have been led down a false path to a place from which they are unable to escape, and despite having access to the most powerful of modern computers, the economists qua economists have been unable to provide any better answers to the questions of thousands of years than those economists of centuries past.

There is a growing body of scholarship which crosses traditional (party) discipline lines as dissatisfaction with economics as we know it continues to grow. Some have sought to search along the path of complexity while others have retraced the steps of earlier unorthodaox economics scholars and found a rich harvest as in the work of those like Ormerod, or from a different perspective, Geoff Hodgson. This scholarship is bearing much fruit but as yet is not in a position to provide the final blow to what is now so clearly a blind alley but which provides many jobs in many areas.

Ormerod is providing a great services in opening up this new world to the majority of the population. In light of the crucial importance of this emerging paradigm I have no hesitation in recommending this book to students, practitioners, indeed anyone involved in political or economic work, as a must read.
May 19, 2007

Lousy pop economics

This book is written at the seventh grade level and is consistently vapid. There are intriguing ideas--the similarities of rates of extinction and failures of businesses, but there's no real attempt to explain these similarities beyond telling us that the relevant curves obey a power law. We already knew that lots of businesses fail and that it's hard even for giant companies to keep up, but there's nothing added here that explains any of this.

If you want exciting pop economics, read Steven Landsburg.
May 01, 2007

Answer the Question

This book fails to answer the question posed in the title. It never explains why things fail. Rather it describes the pattern of failure in biology and economics. The author spends much space taking puerile swipes at "orthodox" economics and in the end extols the work of Hayek and Schumpeter because he mistakenly believes they are outside the pale of the current economic profession.

It is a shame that he did not spend more time analyzing whether economic theory might explain failure or attempt his own explanation. The topic remains to be explored. For example the author harps on how no business can be found to explicitly maximize profits through marginal cost pricing and therefore the theory is "unrealistic." He has failed to recognize Milton Friedman's observation that pool players make shots consistent with the laws of physics but cannot explain those laws. Perhaps failing to maximize profits through marginal cost pricing is a recipe for failure.
January 12, 2007

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another
by Philip Ball

Ubiquity: Why Catastrophes Happen
by Mark Buchanan

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Butterfly Economics: A New General Theory of Social and Economic Behavior
by Paul Ormerod

Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
by Nassim Nicholas Taleb