Ask HN: Are there any books about failure (with no later success)?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16858711
by mvkel • 8 years ago
3 1 8 years ago

I feel like the world of entrepreneurship, especially tech entrepreneurship, is suffering from history being written by the victor.

Everyone has a story about overcoming adversity and succeeding. It's the expectation. It's the hero's journey. But how do we know the failures weren't just red herrings -- that success was inevitable for these companies?

Are there any books that are post-mortems? Stories about companies who had every indication that they would succeed, but ultimately failed? I'd love to read about them.

Ones that come to mind that are out there: - Kozmo.com - The Hard Thing About Hard Things (sorta)

I'd love to read the history of MySpace, Wang computers, Atari, etc.

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