Non-Fiction Book Reviews
Book Review: Deadly Decisions
By Sandy Amazeen Dec 27, 2008, 17:44 GMT
A month before its catastrophic failure, Wall Street analysts rated Enron a \'buy\'. In 2001, at the CIA, FBI, and Department of Defense, a squabbling bureaucracy buried warnings of a looming terrorist attack. And Congress and the country were talked into war against a collapsing dictatorship on the basis of detailed and compelling intelligence, which turned out to be false. How could all of the experts be so wrong? In ...more
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.
