The Book of Bad Ideas

 From Napoleon’s march into Russia to New Coke, Theranos, the Houston Astros’ trash-can “analytics,” and Facebook’s “just a quiz” data fiasco, this book takes you on a tour of spectacular faceplants in war, business, tech, and public policy, and shows you why they made sense at the time.

The Book of Bad Ideas isn’t just a highlight reel of disasters. It’s a field guide for leaders who don’t want to be next.

Across seven sections, The Hubris Chronicles, The Data Delusion, The Innovation Trap, The Incentive Disasters, The Feedback Blackout, The Complexity Catastrophes, and The Trust Collapse, each beautifully illustrated spread follows a simple pattern:

• What happened
• Why smart people thought it was a good idea
• The lesson you can steal before it’s too late

You’ll see how:

• An incentive for “Eight accounts per customer” blew up a bank’s reputation
• A missed software patch exposed millions of identities
• A single deployment nearly bankrupted a trading firm in 45 minutes
• “Helping smokers quit” turned into hooking a new generation on nicotine

…and dozens more.
This is a coffee-table book for people who sign things: CEOs, founders, project leaders, product owners, board members, and anyone whose decisions ripple out to customers, employees, or citizens.

Read it to be entertained. Keep it nearby to be reminded:
Most bad ideas don’t look evil or stupid on day one.
They look reasonable, urgent, and just this once right up until they don’t.