Reported Nonfiction About How Everyday Systems Work

Atul Gawande compares complex work in fields such as aviation, construction, and medicine. The comparison gives a reader ways to see why organizations use short checks when several people need to remember their part of a shared job. Read it for how a team chooses what to make explicit before moving on.

Ellen Ruppel Shell follows discount shopping into the supply and marketing decisions behind it. Furniture is one example of how design, production, and selling can be reorganized around the price customers see. Choose it if you want to know which costs a low sticker price makes easy to overlook.