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Worst Ideas Ever

By: Daniel Kline, Jason Tomaszewski
Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
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Editorial reviews

Listeners smarting from a recent humiliation can take solace in Worst Ideas Ever: A Celebration of Embarrassment, a compendium of the biggest blunders in recent history. Some of the wretched ideas listed here will live forever in infamy for their negative example - say, New Coke or Bernie Madoff. Others are rescued from obscurity by authors Daniel Kline and Jason Tomaszewski, like the idea to put record players in Chevy cars, or Cop Rock, the (thankfully) forgotten musical police procedural by the creator of NYPD Blue. Narrator Patrick Lawlor's droll, winking descriptions of the worst that sports, entertainment, and pop culture have to offer is an antidote to a bad day. Those prone to noisy laughter might want to listen to this one in private.

Publisher's summary

Mistakes so big they seem like fodder for The Onion - but they really happened!

From memorable disasters such as New Coke, the XFL, and Tiger Woods’ marriage to less-remembered failures such as Yugo, Cop Rock, and Microsoft’s BOB, Worst Ideas Ever revisits history’s biggest blunders. Whether it’s a pop culture failure the likes of Dennis Miller’s disastrous run on Monday Night Football, a political one such as John Edwards’ odd decision to run for president while cheating on his cancer-stricken wife, or a technological misstep such as Apple’s Newton OS, Worst Ideas Ever uncovers the ridiculous stories behind mistakes so huge, you’ll have to constantly remind yourself that they actually happened.

Moving from Mariah Carey’s “performance” in Glitter to the Minnesota Vikings decision to trade away their future for an aging Herschel Walker, Worst Ideas Ever offers the real stories behind some of the dumbest things ever done. Whether it was ego (Michael Jordan leaving basketball for baseball), greed (nobody questioning their impossibly high returns when investing with Bernie Madoff) or simple stupidity (Jay Leno moving to 10 p.m.), Worst Ideas Ever brings it all back in hilarious detail.

©2011 Daniel B. Kline and Jason Tomaszewski (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Worst Ideas Ever

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Perhaps with pictures...

Okay, I paid a buck for this and I can't say I'm sorry. The other Audible reviews agree with me that it's just not that great. But Amazon reviews say something a little different. They talk about PICTURES -- in COLOR. That probably made all the difference.

I have to say that I am not a sports fan, and a huge dose of sports "duh"s take up half the book. I don't remember hearing any comments about Tiger Woods' marriage either. Maybe I slept through that.

It took up a morning for me, and is better than watching today's daytime TV. So, if you can't get this audible version on sale, get the book in print. It'll have PICTURES!

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

starts out moderately interesting

There are things that you can quantitatively categorize as bad ideas and things that are opinions. This seems like the authors had an idea for a book but not enough material so they moved into a lot of sports (trading this one for that one was a bad idea) where unless it caused a company or a franchise to fold it's worth less than 10 seconds of my time, let alone several minutes.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Listicle

this was not a book, it was a losy with a bit of information about 4ish things. waste of time

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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My 2014 Worst Idea

You guessed it "Listening to this book was My worst Idea ever "
I dont know what i was thinking when i bought it. it lacks research. its One line paragraphs for some ideas are like wikipedia listings. I don't know why it took 2 people to write this book. One person with a good internet connection was enough. I even felt depressed after listening to it. the book doesn't even have an aim.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

This book was like a comedy.

Story after story of bad corporate or personal decisions. I laughed with each story and the memory of when it happened.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

No new insights for already known issues.

What was most disappointing about Daniel Kline and Jason Tomaszewski ’s story?

The impression I had received from this book was that the authors decided to scour the internet for product failure stories, but did not add any additional insight. After an hour, I was completely bored.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

How fast can the author talk and still be understandable?

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

I was bored. I read all of this before.

Any additional comments?

I'm glad I had purchased this as a Audible Deal Of The Day.

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Add this one to the list of worst ideas ever.

I was looking forward to this book. For some reason I thought this was going to be a historical look at bad ideas.

The little history this book contains is overshadowed by his personal opinions. In some cases it seems that he is happy ______ failed because he doesn't like them.

If he would have left out the personal opinions and stuck to research and facts this would have been more intresting.

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1 person found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Worst book ever

Inane, frivolous and a waste of time. Don't bother with this book. The book itself is a celebration of embarrassment.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Just fun humor

This has been the funniest book I've heard or read in a long time
It's a humorous trip down memory lane ..More than worth the buck I paid

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Completely pointless

I thought this would be informative and explain why bad ideas happen. Not so in this case. Instead we are presented with a litany of bad ideas that have taken place with short descriptions of what those ideas were. No time spent on the most interesting question, why did people think it was a good idea to do this, or how they could have avoided going down this path, or how to have better managed the bad idea.

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