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caribouffant's review against another edition
4.0
An excellent argument, clearly and concisely put. Goes a bit overboard with the hero worship of army officers, but that really is a minor quibble.
simmoril's review
5.0
Although I enjoyed Harford's earlier work, The Undercover Economist, what really drew me to his latest book was a talk he gave at The London School of Economics about this book (http://youtu.be/mCmFWiSCm7A). After seeing the talk (which I highly recommend watching), I just had to check out Adapt
The main thesis of Adapt is many of the problems we face in today's world are incredibly complicated; so complicated in fact, that there may not be a straightforward answer to solving them; that is, it might not be as simple as just sitting around, thinking up a solution, and then implementing it. Rather, good solutions need to come about the same way that nature comes up with solutions; through trial and error, adaptation, and evolution. Harford draws upon multiple examples from the military, business, finance, and nature to show that to succeed requires the ability to try many different approaches, with the expectation that most of them will fail.
I've long been a subscriber to the idea that softening the blow from failures is a great idea, as it serves as a strong encouragement to try new things and explore new paths without the fear of ruin. Harford's book does a great job of highlighting the benefits of this approach with a variety of examples. His stories about the military failures in Iraq, the collapse of Lehmann Brothers, and the success of Whole Foods Markets were real eye-openers for me. Most of all, his examples were great food for thought; as I was reading Adapt, I constantly found myself making notes of things to look up and research later.
I highly recommend Adapt for a fresh perspective on how to approach challenges and really see why failure isn't always a bad thing.
The main thesis of Adapt is many of the problems we face in today's world are incredibly complicated; so complicated in fact, that there may not be a straightforward answer to solving them; that is, it might not be as simple as just sitting around, thinking up a solution, and then implementing it. Rather, good solutions need to come about the same way that nature comes up with solutions; through trial and error, adaptation, and evolution. Harford draws upon multiple examples from the military, business, finance, and nature to show that to succeed requires the ability to try many different approaches, with the expectation that most of them will fail.
I've long been a subscriber to the idea that softening the blow from failures is a great idea, as it serves as a strong encouragement to try new things and explore new paths without the fear of ruin. Harford's book does a great job of highlighting the benefits of this approach with a variety of examples. His stories about the military failures in Iraq, the collapse of Lehmann Brothers, and the success of Whole Foods Markets were real eye-openers for me. Most of all, his examples were great food for thought; as I was reading Adapt, I constantly found myself making notes of things to look up and research later.
I highly recommend Adapt for a fresh perspective on how to approach challenges and really see why failure isn't always a bad thing.
howardgo's review
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
4.25
Originally posted at myreadinglife.com
Throughout my life I have been told that mistakes are okay and to learn from them. However much of my experience has taught me very differently. In school, mistakes were bad and led to low grades and poor performance. At work, mistakes can lead to reprimands, demotions, or the loss of a job. So contrary to much of what I was taught, mistakes felt like something that should be avoided at all costs and certainly should not be accepted as a normal part of life. In his book Adapt, Tim Harford turns this on its head, showing not only how to learn from mistakes but arguing that, as it says in the subtitle, success always starts with failure.
Throughout my life I have been told that mistakes are okay and to learn from them. However much of my experience has taught me very differently. In school, mistakes were bad and led to low grades and poor performance. At work, mistakes can lead to reprimands, demotions, or the loss of a job. So contrary to much of what I was taught, mistakes felt like something that should be avoided at all costs and certainly should not be accepted as a normal part of life. In his book Adapt, Tim Harford turns this on its head, showing not only how to learn from mistakes but arguing that, as it says in the subtitle, success always starts with failure.
The key takeaway is what Hardford calls the Palchinsky Principles after a Soviet scientist who was sent to Siberia and later executed by Stalin for daring to point out adaptations that would not work. These principles are variation, survivability, and selection. Adaptation starts with trying lots of things that might work, but which are unlikely to cause a catastrophic failure. After seeing what fails (most attempts) and what works, select the change that best meets the need.
A key to this process is to make sure that you know when you have failed. That may seem obvious, but we humans have a way of talking ourselves out of our mistakes. We deny they were mistakes at all by telling ourselves a story that somehow turns them into successes. Sometimes when we fail to admit our mistakes we continue on a failed course, wasting time that could be spent pursuing a more successful solution. And sometimes we just convince ourselves that it really wasn't that bad even when we know better.
Throughout the book, the author uses examples to illustrate learning organizations (the US Army in Iraq), creating ideas that matter (solving the problem of locating a ship at sea), finding what works for the poor (building wells in Africa), and many others. By using such case studies, Harford explores in a practical way how to successfully change and adapt. In a world where it sometimes seems that innovation and change are happening for their own sake with no consideration of unintended consequences, this is a book with a method that could help create change that better solves the problems we collectively face.
dhague's review against another edition
4.0
This was an interesting read, especially for anyone looking to make a breakthrough in their career, business, or social life. The author goes through a lot of real-world examples of when failure brought about success. He goes back to previous examples a lot so don't skip around the book.
One of the enlightening parts of this book was the way Donald Rumsfeld handled the intelligence he was receiving during the Iraq war. I never knew a lot of that, and it's made me want to know more.
The author takes a lot of views on success coming out of failure, and tries to postulate which direction the success came from - or how we can optimize it so that in our own lives we can get there faster. Sometimes you just have to try something many times before you get one that works - but sometimes there are steps you can take to increase your chance of hitting a peak instead of a valley.
The author speaks of times when success was found from the top-down but the majority of the time, success comes from the bottom up.
There are a lot of examples of failure in this book, and sometimes the spectacular success that comes out of it. All you have to do is take the risk sometimes.
Good book, recommended - a little shorter than I thought it would be - 40% of the book was acknowledgements and notes, but I guess you need good citations.
One of the enlightening parts of this book was the way Donald Rumsfeld handled the intelligence he was receiving during the Iraq war. I never knew a lot of that, and it's made me want to know more.
The author takes a lot of views on success coming out of failure, and tries to postulate which direction the success came from - or how we can optimize it so that in our own lives we can get there faster. Sometimes you just have to try something many times before you get one that works - but sometimes there are steps you can take to increase your chance of hitting a peak instead of a valley.
The author speaks of times when success was found from the top-down but the majority of the time, success comes from the bottom up.
There are a lot of examples of failure in this book, and sometimes the spectacular success that comes out of it. All you have to do is take the risk sometimes.
Good book, recommended - a little shorter than I thought it would be - 40% of the book was acknowledgements and notes, but I guess you need good citations.
saron's review against another edition
Very poorly written book. Stories were half finished, big claims made with out much research or data to back it up, random stories thrown in with no takeaways or lessons learned (or very weak lessons learned). Super disappointed, do not recommend.
julievittengl's review against another edition
4.0
I found the first 2 and last 2 chapters of this book to be the most interesting. The middle was a bit tedious with example after example but worth reading for the last two chapters.
mrblackbean11's review against another edition
4.0
An interesting collection of anecdotal evidence to try to key on what brings long term success. It's definitely biased towards the author's thinking/exposure, but it is really interesting and I think Tim Harford has something here. Definitely a fun read about applied data science.
cjdavey's review against another edition
3.0
Like every other book by Harford, Adapt is a highly cherry-picked assembly of anecdotes around a central theme. It's interesting, but not without flaws; he contradicts himself more than once, and his foray into the problems of complexity lead him away from the main idea for a few chapters in the middle. The last chapter contains a lot that's almost verbatim repetition.
At times the content seems a little obvious: I do wonder how much has been simplified so that the likes of me can understand it.
At times the content seems a little obvious: I do wonder how much has been simplified so that the likes of me can understand it.
thombeckett's review against another edition
4.0
Interesting, well-written book that often explains complex economic details in very simple language (indeed, it includes one of the best explanations for the credit crunch that I've read anywhere). The premise, that setting up systems so that there is room for failure, is persuasive and Harford is the first to point out areas in which the simplest version of his theory is likely to fail, and therefore hones it as he goes. A really excellent read.