Adapt

Why it’s on the list: Tim Harford’s argument that complex problems are solved by variation and selection rather than planning — and that the binding constraint is usually an institution’s inability to admit a failure and kill it.

Where I heard about it

• My own bookshelf — a book I own but haven’t read, picked up from a photo of my shelves. The literal anti-library case: bought and shelved rather than recommended.
• In Patrick O’Shaughnessy’s Full Reading List (Investor Field Guide, 2016) — the archive of his monthly book-club recommendations, saved by Kyle in April 2020 — Full Reading List (Investor Field Guide).

Connections

• Books To Read — the Apple Note this shelf transcription came from.