{"id":105056,"date":"2019-06-17T13:10:08","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T18:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=105056"},"modified":"2026-09-24T20:20:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T01:20:26","slug":"podcast-517-what-big-time-catastrophes-can-teach-us-about-how-to-improve-the-systems-of-our-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-517-what-big-time-catastrophes-can-teach-us-about-how-to-improve-the-systems-of-our-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #517: What Big-Time Catastrophes Can Teach Us About How to Improve the Systems of Our Lives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Whenever a financial or technological disaster takes place, people wonder if it could have possibly been averted.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>My guests today say that the answer is often yes, and that the lessons around why big disasters happen can teach us something about preventing catastrophes in our businesses and personal lives. Their&nbsp;names are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.meltdownbook.net\/\">Chris Clearfield and Andras Tilcsik<\/a>, and they&#8217;re the authors of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0735222630\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0735222630&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess&amp;linkId=FSXA3GZUT5SFDAZ4\"><em>Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It<\/em><\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We begin our discussion getting into how they got interested in exploring how everything from plane crashes to nuclear&nbsp;meltdowns&nbsp;to flash stock market crashes actually share common causes. We then discuss the difference between complicated and complex systems, why complex systems have weaknesses that make them vulnerable to failure, and how such complexity is on the rise in our modern, technological era. Along the way, Chris and Andras provide examples of complex systems that have crashed and burned, from the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor&nbsp;meltdown&nbsp;to a Starbucks social media campaign gone awry. We end our conversation digging into specific tactics engineers and organizations use to create stronger, more catastrophe-proof systems, and how regular folks can use these insights to help make their own lives run a bit more smoothly.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whenever a financial or technological disaster takes place, people wonder if it could have possibly been averted.&nbsp; My guests today say that the answer is often yes, and that the lessons around why big disasters happen can teach us something about preventing catastrophes in our businesses and personal lives. Their&nbsp;names are Chris Clearfield and Andras [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":195319,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[502,156,42388],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character","category-podcast","category-self-improvement"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/517-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/517-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/517-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/517-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/517-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Learning From Catasrophes So They Aren&#039;t Repeated | Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Whenever a financial or technological disaster takes place, people wonder if it could have possibly been averted. Listen to this podcast to find out more.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-517-what-big-time-catastrophes-can-teach-us-about-how-to-improve-the-systems-of-our-lives\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #517: What Big-Time Catastrophes Can Teach Us About How to Improve the Systems of Our Lives | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Whenever a financial or technological disaster takes place, people wonder if it could have possibly been averted. Listen to this podcast to find out more.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-517-what-big-time-catastrophes-can-teach-us-about-how-to-improve-the-systems-of-our-lives\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-06-17T18:10:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-25T01:20:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/517.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-517-what-big-time-catastrophes-can-teach-us-about-how-to-improve-the-systems-of-our-lives\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-517-what-big-time-catastrophes-can-teach-us-about-how-to-improve-the-systems-of-our-lives\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brett\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\"},\"headline\":\"Podcast #517: What Big-Time Catastrophes Can Teach Us About How to Improve the Systems of Our Lives\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-17T18:10:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-25T01:20:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-517-what-big-time-catastrophes-can-teach-us-about-how-to-improve-the-systems-of-our-lives\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":232,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-517-what-big-time-catastrophes-can-teach-us-about-how-to-improve-the-systems-of-our-lives\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/06\\\/517.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Character\",\"Podcast\",\"Self-Improvement\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2019\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-517-what-big-time-catastrophes-can-teach-us-about-how-to-improve-the-systems-of-our-lives\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-517-what-big-time-catastrophes-can-teach-us-about-how-to-improve-the-systems-of-our-lives\\\/\",\"name\":\"Learning From Catasrophes So They Aren't Repeated | Art of Manliness\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-517-what-big-time-catastrophes-can-teach-us-about-how-to-improve-the-systems-of-our-lives\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-517-what-big-time-catastrophes-can-teach-us-about-how-to-improve-the-systems-of-our-lives\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/06\\\/517.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-17T18:10:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-25T01:20:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\"},\"description\":\"Whenever a financial or technological disaster takes place, people wonder if it could have possibly been averted. 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