Deals from Hell by Robert F. Bruner

Written after the turn of the 21st century, this book uses the following methodology: Let's look at a bunch of wrecks and see what's common to them. Bruner apparently failed Stats 101 as he should have taken all the firms that attempted M&As and excluded the commons across all. If he had done that, he would have seen that not only failures have problems with hubris or incentives or decision-making ability. His margin-of-safety comments seem more spot-on to me, but I don't know since he didn't add anything to human knowledge.

Dietrich Dorner has written, "Failure does not strike like a bolt from the blue; it develops gradually according to its own logic." A chief of the National Transportation Safety Board said, "When has an accident occurred which has not had a precursor incident? ... basically never."
page 81
It is nice to see that you have plenty of time to read. How about some more posts regarding life in Singapore? How is the job hunt going? Andy
Job hunting = not good... roughly half of the job postings are for locals or permanent residents only, and the other half don't reply to my inquiries. It seems like one has to wait until the recession is over before one gets an even chance. Which gives me lots of time to hack around in SG ;) I've been building up my tan so that I can go to the beaches without over-irradiating myself (SPF 50 won't help on the equator unless you have a good base tan). FYI, some local info posts are coming up.. ;) -- Patrick