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Deadly Decisions: How False Knowledge Sank the Titanic, Blew Up the Shuttle, and Led America into War Kindle Edition
- Print length360 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPrometheus
- Publication dateNovember 7, 2008
- File size2678 KB
Editorial Reviews
Review
Outlining six tests for truth including detail, verifiable evidence and consistency, Burns shows how easily even knowledgeable professionals can be led astray. Learn how to avoid the pitfalls of a crowd mentality and information overload while discovering some basic hard-wired biology in this eye opening examination of the "information age" . From Wall Street investments to invading foreign countries, the ability to make intelligent informed decisions is vital. Understanding the dynamics of information processing has never been more critical and Burns goes a long way toward providing the necessary tools to separate clever fiction from solid facts." --monstersandcritics.com, Sandy Amazeen, Dec 27, 2008
"Christopher Burns has searched through the details of a dozen disasters in recent years to find an alarming and consistent pattern of false knowledge and failed decisions, explaining in the process how many of these are the natural result of the brain s biology, individual behavior, and group decision-making. Deadly Decisions is a horrifying tale of error, delusion, and deceit. Catastrophes that were 'no one's fault' turn out to have been everyone's fault. But then he shows how we can overcome this danger through critical thinking, information literacy, and a greater commitment to the truth. If your company's success, your security, or your life are riding on someone else's information skills, urge them to read this book." --Paul Zurkowski, founder and former president of the Information Industry Association
"If the Information Age ever had a wakeup call it is this. Deadly Decisions does for information what An Inconvenient Truth did for climate change, what Silent Spring did for the environment. It points out the perils as well as the promise of betting our lives on information, at a time when we have no other choice. Brilliant, terrifying, true." --Leland Schwartz, Editor and Publisher, States News Service
"This is a very important book for this particular time." -- Benjamin C. Bradlee, Former Editor, The Washington Post
"[A] stunning array of insights, Deadly Decisions opens the way to an age of thinking truthfully together. Burns has given us a new conceptual framework of startling importance." --Marilyn Ferguson, author of The Aquarian Conspiracy and publisher of Brain/Mind Bulletin
"Beginning with the Titanic disaster, Burns compellingly argues that some of the worst "accidents" and mishaps in modern times can be directly attributed to misinformation or misinterpretation of the available data. Burns examines the foundations used in the decision making processes that determined the events of Three Mile Island, the space shuttle Challenger, 9/11, hurricane Katrina response, the invasion of Iraq and more. What emerges is a frightening picture of deliberate distortion of the facts, false information, erroneous assumptions and sheer arrogance that should serve as a wakeup call to us all.
Outlining six tests for truth including detail, verifiable evidence and consistency, Burns shows how easily even knowledgeable professionals can be led astray. Learn how to avoid the pitfalls of a crowd mentality and information overload while discovering some basic hard-wired biology in this eye opening examination of the "information age" . From Wall Street investments to invading foreign countries, the ability to make intelligent informed decisions is vital. Understanding the dynamics of information processing has never been more critical and Burns goes a long way toward providing the necessary tools to separate clever fiction from solid facts." --monstersandcritics.com, Sandy Amazeen, Dec 27, 2008
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B002EZZ5D6
- Publisher : Prometheus (November 7, 2008)
- Publication date : November 7, 2008
- Language : English
- File size : 2678 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Not enabled
- Enhanced typesetting : Not Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : Not Enabled
- Print length : 360 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,469,991 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,593 in Social Psychology & Interactions
- #3,646 in Medical Social Psychology & Interactions
- #4,386 in Sociology (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Christopher Burns started his career as assistant to the Director of the Yale University Press, and at the Director’s suggestion, enrolled in IBM’s new course on the fundamentals of computing, intended to train professional programmers and systems analysts. The thought was that one day computer technology might have an effect even on publishing, and a young person should know about these things. During his years at the Yale Press, he wrote a major industry study on computerized production technologies and built the first database of books for the Yale Co-op bookstore. Years later, he designed the Onyx database of book data now used by Amazon and publishers around the world.
In the spring of 1968, after graduating from Army Officer Candidate School, he was assigned as chief of computer operations at a secure communications center serving the White House, the Pentagon, and other classified organizations on the East Coast. Then, as Command Information Officer for the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam, he led a detachment of reporters and photographers putting out a weekly newspaper, a monthly magazine, and two books, one of which was later named the best Army publication of the year.
On his return, he joined the Harvard University Press where he launched the new Harvard Paperback series. He was later recruited by Arthur D. Little, Inc., a well-known Cambridge research and consulting firm, and began a long practice in the future of new information technologies, office automation, and online publishing. As a consultant and large-scale systems designer, he led the development of digital publishing systems for United Nations headquarters, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the governments of the U.S., Ireland, and Iran, as well as dozens of the country’s largest corporations.
In 1980, he went to the Washington Post Company as Vice President/Planning, still focusing on the future of computer technology and the media. And from there he moved to the management side as Senior Vice President (general manager) of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune. After three years he returned to systems design and technology consulting with his own practice, and for the next 25 years followed the rise of the internet and the birth of digital information services, deeply involved in the development of new online networks for several governments and most of the major companies in the information industry sector. He spent a year as Executive Editor of UPI, the worldwide news service, and served on the boards of the Information Industry Association and several information industry startups.
Mr. Burns has two patents on online information technology, covering the field of consumer networks and the emerging Internet of Things. In the last few years, he has turned primarily to writing, having published Deadly Decisions (Prometheus), The Seashell Anthology of Great Poetry (Random House), Vietnam Album, a history of the war, The New Old Age (Seashell Press), Immortal Poets (another anthology of poetry with history and biographies), and several novels.
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It happens that, when I started reading "Deadly Decisions", I had just finished reading "With Wings Like Eagles" by Korda. This is a new book about the famous Battle of Britain. In Korda's book he portrays Air Marshall Dowding as someone who almost singlehandedly organized and maintained the air defence of the English Coast at a time when the threat of a cross-channel invasion by the Germans was a very real threat. Dowding's ideas were opposed by his staff, his pilots, and by his government, but in the end he was vindicated. Yet in "Deadly Decisions" Brand provides several examples of leaders who ignored advice with disatrous consequences. Of course, Brand effectively argues that leaders can and do filter and even distort advice. Advisors and staff to leaders must also realize that there are times when they must be prepared to sacrifice personal careers in the interest of avoiding potential disasters. These are lessons that we need to learn and internalize thoroughly.
I found the book very sobering and very worthwhile.
Rodger Shepherd