Adapt
Why Success Always Starts with Failure

Adapt or die - a well-popularised advice. This one goes a far beyond the pure adaptation apologetics. A lot of case studies on how things go right or wrong when people mess up thingys. And how and why and what for. A great read. Quite a lot of sectors covered: military, business, history, science. A......more

"Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure" by Tim Harford should never have developed into a book. Entertaining and inevitably true, success does and always starts with failure, but to continuously argue the point for 275 pages become cumbersome and tedious. To credit Harford's book, I did enjo......more

Some reviewers have admonished Tim Harford for repeating the same thesis over and over again & effectively turning a whole bunch of blog posts into a book. I disagree - the parameters of adaption change with context - frequency & diversity of variation, consequences of failure, cultural appetite for......more

This book was tedious and a snoozefest to finish. Honestly, I'd rather watch paint dry than read it again. With all of that said, there's a couple of useful tidbits of information - and it's clear the author spent a lot of time writing this book. 3 stars.......more

Adapt has a clear and compelling thesis, and is strikingly well-written -- the two traits I seek most from non-fiction works. My summary of the thesis: success in anything is best achieved through lightweight experimentation, copious failure (and the learning that goes with it), and a rigorous select......more