The Collapse of Complex Societies

This book by Joseph Tainter came up once on Tim Ferriss in the episodes we index. That mention was a genuine on-air recommendation, not just a passing reference. The people who brought it up: Greg McKeown. Every occurrence below links to the episode page and to the exact second it was said on YouTube.

A survey of complex (post-hunter-gatherer, hierarchical) societies and their collapse, and the various theories proposed to account for collapse. The author develops his own theory based on the increasing cost of managing complexity that acheives decreasing marginal benefits.