book
The Logic of Failure: Recognizing and Avoiding Error
Dörner, Dietrich. The Logic of Failure: Recognizing and Avoiding Error in Complex Situations. New York: Basic Books, 1996.
Why this matters here
Dietrich Dörner’s The Logic of Failure shows how people mismanage complex situations by oversimplifying, ignoring delayed feedback, and locking in premature pictures of the system. How Serious Systems Learn extends that cognitive pattern to institutions: once certainty is formally declared, the burden of proof reverses and critics must justify interruption. Dörner explains error under complexity; the book asks how planning cycles and incentives produce that certainty earlier than reality warrants.
