Worst Ideas Ever

A Celebration of Embarrassment

By: Daniel Kline, Jason Tomaszewski

Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor

Length: 3 hrs and 47 mins

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.

Interesting topic made hard to listen to.

I will admit that the topic is quite interesting. Taking a look at the backstory of some of the worst ideas ever sounds like a great read. Unfortunately, the author writes in an editorial style where he takes extreme views of the "stupidity" of the people involved in the decisions themselves. The book reads more like a blog, newspaper editorial or magazine.
The problem is many of these decisions aren't necessarily stupid in the forefront and only ended up that way in hindsight. They were gambles and in the real chronological timeframe many other decisions that happened alongside of these, worked out and became brilliant decisions of trend setters and pioneers. Indeed, many of the decisions were just plain stupid. However, the always negative positioning of the authors' views along with the limited scope of his information on the backstory make him seem arrogant and as if he would never of made such crazy mistakes.

The topic is interesting, but knowing a little bit about the further backstory of many of these decisions I see where the author's views or a limit the little limited. It made an otherwise interesting topic difficult to listen to. I think if the author had taken more of a documentarian stance simply informing us of what led to these decisions it would've been a much more enjoyable read.

Surprisingly condescending

Would you try another book from Daniel Kline and Jason Tomaszewski and/or Patrick Lawlor?

I thought this book would be funny and light, but it really just made be feel badly for the people with these ideas, and as though I wanted to jump in and defend them. Most often the writing and especially the narrator came across as belittling and condescending rather than commiserating and sympathetic.

What didn’t you like about Patrick Lawlor’s performance?

The narrator really drips with disdain for these ideas. I thought the tone the writers were going for was more playful and "hey, we've all been there" kind of thing, but the reading came across as "wow, these guys were just complete idiots". Add in the fact that the narrator pronounced "u"s in the old fashioned way (as though it had a "y" before it; imagine "prodyuced" and "introdyuced") and I felt annoyed through most of this book.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Sure. Some of the nostalgia was fun, and I learned a lot more about the background behind some of these famous failures, which was interesting.

This book was okay at best.

I got this book for 99 cents through an Audible promotion. It was worth that much. Had I payed more, I might have been annoyed by what could have been an excellent book. The topic was very well researched in some areas and apparently guessed at in others. The humorous tone, whether a result of the performance or the writing, quickly devolves into snark, causing the suppositions offered in some of the anecdotes to sound like opinion...the kind some people repeat to make them selves sound smarter. If you are looking for well told, well rounded stories of some of society, culture and business's biggest missteps...Keep looking. If what you are looking for is the literary equivalent of pointing at people on the street and calling them dumb, this is your book...if you get it on sale.

Well, I'm No So Stupid After All...

What does Patrick Lawlor bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Patrick Lawlor provides an enthusiastic performance and one can almost imagine the difficulty in keeping a straight face for some of these tales.

Was Worst Ideas Ever worth the listening time?

This isn't a book with pretensions. You're listening to the documented public fumbles of politicians, company executives, sports stars, etc. Have the little thrill of "well I may have done something dumb, but at least it wasn't THAT!"

Any additional comments?

You know the time you were face to face with that really hot guy you'd been wanting to introduce yourself to, and you forgot your own name, thus completely humiliating yourself? Or that day you decided to sashay to the front door and meet your significant other in you birthday suit, only to find the meter reader instead? Well, at least your embarrassment was not international news, causing large scale destruction, costing millions of dollars and living on for eternity in archives and on the internet!

A Disappointment

Is there anything you would change about this book?

This book is a list of short-well known failures...it might have been nice if the authors had gone deeper into the whys and lessons of these failures, but they added nothing to the conversation and told no stories that weren't already well known to me.

What does Patrick Lawlor bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The reader does a fantastic job with material that's mediocre at best.

Hit and Miss

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

This was an entertaining book, and worth the listen overall, but...

Any additional comments?

The lack of any apparent objective criteria, aside from the authors' opinions, and the lack of length were both misses. On the plus side, it was an entertaining listen, and some of the ideas clearly fall in the "they thought that was a good idea??" category. Like "New Coke."

It did not feel like the authors were experts

I understand by the title that this was going to be a lot of opinions. I'm good with that. However, I was really hoping for a bit more objectivity. A lot of the statements made, were made with no supporting research. For example during one section on video games, they refer to the Super Nintendo has being regarded as not a great system, and a failure compared to the Genesis. A small amount of research shows that the SNES sold almost twice as many units as the Genesis. I love a good opinion, but if youre going to print it, you really should site some sources.

Some of it was interesting...

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Maybe if he/she was a sports fan.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

At least half the book was a long boring (to a non-sports fan) litany of sports trivia about people I know and care nothing about. Some of the other parts were mildly interesting but superficial.
Least interesting: sports, old TV shows and other show business trivia.

Which scene was your favorite?

There were no real scenes, basically just a list. The parts about New Coke and the Segway were slightly more interesting.

Could you see Worst Ideas Ever being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No.

Any additional comments?

Mildly amusing but mostly a waste of time.

More a string of podcasts than an actual book

Good concept, but the execution lacks nuance. This "book" is really more a string of podcasts, than a cohesive, coherent book. There are a few interesting stories about bad ideas, but it's mostly strung together by the reading of lists of bad ideas, rather than digging into the details. Glad this was a freebie on Audible Plus. If not, I'd have returned it.

Fun

Extremely entertaining and fun. if a face palms and shaking ones head could have examples, this book is full of them.