Authors: Richard A. Clarke, R.P. Eddy
Book Link

The full title of this book, Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes, is a reference to Cassandra, the princess of Troy. She was cursed by the god Apollo to be able to see the future… but unable to persuade anyone of it.

This book is an examination on two fronts: who were the Cassandras of some of our great catastrophes that could have been prevented and then moves into an examination of today’s potential Cassandras.

Between these two sections is a chapter on what they’ve coined, “The Cassandra Coefficient.” It’s a formula they came up with based on previous Cassandras to apply to people today on whether they’re an actual Cassandra or just a raving lunatic. They never flat out tell you, “Yes, this person is a Cassandra.”

Instead, they leave it up to you to decide.

I rather enjoyed part one because it was fascinating to hear about the people who were absolutely correct and largely ignored. It kind of pisses you off in a way. The catastrophes ranged from the Challenger spaceship blowing up to the Fukushima meltdown, the cause of the Gulf War and the 2008 economic crisis.

What I appreciated most is how quickly those chapters moved. There was no need to belabour the point — they happened and we didn’t prevent them. Here’s who called it. Next.

Part two is where my interest peaked and waned.

I was very much interested in the upcoming crises experts are predicting and definitely wanted to hear what they had to say . My only issue is where the first half moved quickly, this part dragged on a little too much for me.

I get each one of those chapters could be an entire book in themselves (and in some cases, they are), but it ruined the flow as a narrative.

That aside, it’s definitely worth picking up and reading to help you get a handle on what’s happening today… and for our future.