How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors That Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything In Between

I actually read this book twice. I listened to it during a roadtrip, and I enjoyed it so much, I bought the hardcover and read that too.

One of the authors is a Danish researcher who examines large infrastructure projects and figures out why they failed. He has a database of thousands of these projects, and he tracks them around the world.

What he found is that they almost always go over-budget and over-schedule. Additionally, the deviations are “fat-tailed,” which means when they go over, it’s not by a small amount – they go way over.

His advice to avoid this is not ground-breaking. It’s all very safe project practices:

• Have skill, experienced people
• Don’t use untested technology; don’t try to be “the first” at anything
• Break the project down into small, repeatable units
• Think slow, act fast; too much planning never hurt anyone
• Build relationships with the team, the contractors, and the stakeholders
• Consulting reference data for similar projects; don’t assume your project is unique

All throughout, the authors discuss large projects that went both well and poorly. Projects like Boston’s Big Dig (poorly), the Sydney Opera House (very poorly), the Empire State Building (very well), etc.

He also tackles the problem of great stories. Some projects were done on-the-fly with little planning and turned out amazing, but he makes it clear that this is just survivor bias. We talk about this projects because they worked when they shouldn’t have. We don’t talk about the other 99% of poorly planned projects that utterly failed.

The book is a wonderful read. I may listen to it again, because it’s a great combination of an interesting topic, lots of great real-world examples, and good writing.

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