Drift Into Failure
Sidney Dekker, a scholar of safety and human error, challenges the usual way we explain catastrophes. Instead of hunting for the single broken component or the one person who messed up, he argues that accidents in complex systems, from plane crashes to financial collapses, often come from many small, reasonable decisions that add up over time. Each step looks fine on its own, but together they let an organization drift toward disaster without anyone noticing. Dekker draws on systems thinking to show why blaming individuals misses the point and why understanding the whole system matters more. The book is read in fields from aviation to medicine to engineering.
What you might want to know about Drift Into Failure
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A safety researcher argues that big disasters rarely come from one broken part, but from complex systems slowly drifting toward failure while everyone follows the rules.
Yes. Ezra Klein included it among six of his favorite books in a 2019 list for The Week.
Drift Into Failure was written by Sidney Dekker, published in 2011 by Ashgate.
Drift Into Failure is 234 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Drift Into Failure takes most readers 4 to 5 hours to finish.
Drift Into Failure is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.