How Complex Systems Fail
How Complex Systems Fail by Richard Cookby Richard Cook
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 8 of 60 articles by recommenders
Recommended as a foundational short essay on why complex systems fail, arguing that root-cause attribution after accidents is misleading. No criticism was recorded.
Recommended as a foundational short essay on why complex systems fail, arguing that root-cause attribution after accidents is misleading. No criticism was recorded.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Foundational standard for understanding system failure
“this document is fundamental to our industry and understanding complex systems”
Comment from 23 Aug 2026 in “How Complex Systems Fail (1998)” “This document by Dr. Cook remains _the standard_ for systems failure.”
Comment from 19 Nov 2025 in “Cloudflare outage on November 18, 2025 post mortem” “One of the great documents of our civilisation”
Comment from 23 Aug 2026 in “How Complex Systems Fail (1998)” Read and reread as a classic
“drilled Richard Cook's "How Complex Systems Fail" deep into my brain”
Comment from 19 Nov 2025 in “Cloudflare outage on November 18, 2025 post mortem” “I'm still a fan of the classic”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “I don't want the details” Hard to grasp without real failures
“it's hard to appreciate it until you've had extended experience with complex systems actually failing”
Comment from 23 Aug 2026 in “How Complex Systems Fail (1998)” “Post-accident attribution to a 'root cause' is fundamentally wrong.”
Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “Widespread service disruptions reported as major platforms go down worldwide”
Other articles people recommend
The four most recommended other articles, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Programming as Theory Buildingby Peter Naur | 32 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Ur-Fascismby Umberto Eco | 18 | 2 | 90% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Politics and the English Languageby George Orwell | 14 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | Approved |
| The Grug Brained Developer by Carson Gross | 13 | 1 | 93% | 9 | — | Approved |
| How Complex Systems Failby Richard CookThis page | 10 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | Approved |
What people said
11 of the 12 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I'm still a fan of the classic”
“Economists would be wise to read this.”
“this document is fundamental to our industry and understanding complex systems”
“Overall a good collection on the complex systems, somehow it missed the part how complex system came into the existence”
“One of the great documents of our civilisation”
“it's hard to appreciate it until you've had extended experience with complex systems actually failing”
“beautiful visualization of "complex systems run in degraded mode"”
“is an interesting read if you're curious for more”
“Post-accident attribution to a 'root cause' is fundamentally wrong.”
“This document by Dr. Cook remains _the standard_ for systems failure.”
“drilled Richard Cook's "How Complex Systems Fail" deep into my brain”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.