Show HN: How Software Fails-A book about complex system failures(sample chapter)

2 points

7 months ago

Based on Richard Cook's research on complex system failures, I wrote a book exploring why disasters like Knight Capital's $440M loss happen when every component functions correctly.

Free sample chapters: https://leanpub.com/how-software-fails

The book explores patterns behind complex system failures—from cosmic rays flipping bits in voting machines to the Therac-25 radiation overdoses. Key insight: traditional "root cause analysis" fundamentally misunderstands how these systems actually fail—they emerge from interactions between components that were individually functioning correctly.

Feel free to grab the sample chapter and give it a try.