How Big Things Get Done

Flyvbjerg's core data point, drawn from a database of more than 16,000 megaprojects, is that only about one in twelve finishes on time and on budget — a statistic he uses to dismantle the usual excuses (bad luck, incompetent contractors) in favor of structural explanations like planning fallacy and strategic misrepresentation at the bidding stage. The prescriptive half of the book, built around "think slow, act fast" and a preference for modular, repeatable components over bespoke one-off construction, is where Gardner's journalistic clarity earns its keep, translating an academic's research program into concrete, transferable heuristics. It reads less like a business-book pep talk than a diagnostic manual, backed by more evidence than most books in its genre bother to marshal.