Foolproof: Why Safety Can Be Dangerous and How Danger Makes Us Safe Hardcover – October 13, 2015
Author: Greg Ip ID: 0316286044
Review
“In this incisive and richly reported book, Greg Ip forces us to rethink our assumptions about risk. He shows that progress might depend on less safety, not more — and that stability can often be destabilizing. FOOLPROOF is the rare book you’ll be thinking about long after you’ve turned the final page.”
“Drawing on a fascinating range of stories about forest fires and flood control, football helmets and anti-lock brakes, bank runs and epidemics, Foolproof is about the unintended and often very surprising consequences of our attempts to protect ourselves from disasters. Illuminating and entertaining, this book will change the way you think about the world of risk.”
“The safer you are, the more you are at risk; crises are born of success as much as failure. Surveying a century of struggles to fend off catastrophe, from financial panic to forest fires, Greg Ip explores these paradoxes deftly, cementing his position as a leading observer of the modern economy–and of the human condition.”
“This book is so much fun to read that it’s easy to forget it’s also very important. We live, now, in a world of constant risk–financial, geopolitical, meteorological. There are so many risks that many of us become either numb or blindly panicked or, somehow, both. Greg Ip has written a beautiful guide to thinking properly about the risks we face. It is a book that can make you feel empowered and optimistic, even as it details some of the scariest challenges we face. It’s a book we need now, in a world that has become so complex that it’s outrun our human brain’s ability to make proper sense of the risks we face. But don’t read it because it’s important. Read it because it’s fun, it has good narratives, some psychology, a bit of (easy, enjoyable) maths and a lot of clear, common sense. You will feel smarter and more capable and you will have tons of stories to tell your friends.”
“It has been said that the problem with making things idiot-proof is that someone will just build a better idiot. Greg Ip’s new book shows us just how that happens, from anti-lock brakes to the gold standard, to the financial crisis we are still reckoning with today. Deftly written and filled with lucid explanations of complex topics, this is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand why seemingly safe territory so often turns out to be dangerous quicksand.”
“[An] eye-opening book about risk-taking and crisis…. A provocative challenge to the tendency to elevate ideology over thoughtfulness.”
About the Author
Greg Ip is an award-winning journalist and the Wall Street Journal’s Chief Economics Commentator. He’s spent two decades in financial and economic journalism, including eleven years at the Wall Street Journal and six years at The Economist. He appears frequently on television and radio, including National Public Radio, PBS, MSNBC, and CNBC. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland.
Hardcover: 336 pagesPublisher: Little, Brown and Company (October 13, 2015)Language: EnglishISBN-10: 0316286044ISBN-13: 978-0316286046 Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.2 x 9.8 inches Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies) Best Sellers Rank: #12,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #3 in Books > business & Money > Economics > Microeconomics #7 in Books > Business & Money > Economics > Macroeconomics #8 in Books > Business & Money > Economics > Money & Monetary Policy
Foolproof was excellent and much more subtle and thought provoking than its subtitle “Why Safety Can Be Dangerous and How Danger Makes Us Safe” would lead you to think. Instead of a retread of the well known Peltzman effect (the idea that innovations design to enhance safety just lead to greater risk taking without necessarily increIDg safety) the book is actually a subtle and wide-ranging exploration of when it is true, when it is not, and its implications (e.g., seatbelt—the original Peltzman claim—actually don’t have the effect because people forget they are wearing them so don’t actually alter their behavior much, but antilock breaks are something you directly engage with while driving and lead to less safe driving). The wide-ranging aspect is a substantial amount of economics which is Greg Ip’s speciality, especially the recent financial and eurozone crises, but also safety in areas like food, floods, wildfires, automobiles, airplanes and professional football. Although Ip somewhat heroically tries to extract some lessons from all of this, the real strength of the book is tying together disparate topics and making you realize that there are no easy answers to any of these questions. That said, I personally find myself generally more sympathetic to what Ip calls the engineers (i.e., the people who try to make innovations to increase safety) rather than the ecologists (i.e., the people who worry about preserving the ecosystem as a whole without disturbances like new safety innovations). But overall an exciting read and thought provoking whether or not you agree with every part of it.
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