THE PRINCIPLE OF INEVITABLE COGNITIVE MISADVENTURE: A Field Guide to Humanity’s Ongoing Commitment to Terrible Ideas

The Principle of Inevitable Cognitive Misadventure states that no matter how advanced society becomes, eventually someone will press the wrong button. Committees may meet, experts may brief, and warning labels may multiply, but human nature remains undefeated. History is essentially a long documentary about people confidently making terrible decisions. Economists call it market instability. Engineers call it system failure. Historians call it “Tuesday.” And nowhere is the Principle more active than during tense moments in the Persian Gulf, where markets, diplomats, and entire governments wait nervously to discover whether someone, somewhere, is about to do something astonishingly unwise.