by Dan Davies
First published 2025
What becomes of decisions we refuse to make? Davies investigates how markets, institutions, and governments create results that no participant claims to desire. He draws on the work of Stafford Beer, an economist from the 1950s who viewed organizations as artificial intelligences that make choices independent of their members' goals. Beer developed management cybernetics, a framework for organizational self-regulation that the world largely dismissed. Davies argues this neglect contributed to today's political and economic turmoil. He combines skeptical analysis with investigative journalism to examine current failures and consider alternative paths. The book reveals how decision-making actually functions in the twenty-first century and offers readers a new lens for understanding institutional dysfunction.
Genres: business, political-science, economics, non-fiction, 21st-century, academic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: investigative-journalism
Period: 1950s, 21st-century
304 pages · Hardcover · University of Chicago Press