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John Downer: Rational Accidents (2024, MIT Press) 5 stars

Deeply thought provoking

5 stars

An academic book looking at Charles Perrow’s normal accident theory and how it doesn’t explain the safety of civilian airlines. I can’t stop thinking about it - especially in how it contrasts nuclear power with civilian airline tech, calling them both “catastrophic technologies.” (Most relevant to folks who read and liked Atomic Accidents.) His distinction between “chronic” and “acute” catastrophic technologies is super interesting and has been helpful for me in thinking about failures modes.