History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. Carefully studying past events and catastrophes can help you avoid making similar mistakes in the future. Well, at least in theory. In reality, it often feels like humanity is doomed to repeat the same blunders decade after decade and century after century.
Bored Panda has compiled a list of stories about the most expensive mistakes in human history from across the internet, including those shared in an online thread started by X user Heisjayy. Read on for a series of lessons that might give you a new perspective on the world.
#1 Sale Of Alaska
Some historians regard the transaction as a short-sighted blunder by Czar Alexander II, giving up Alaska’s rich natural resources, particularly its oil and gas, for $7.2 million – about $125 million (£100 million) in today’s money.
Image source: Heisjayy , Alaska State Library
#2 The Vasa
Vasa was the world’s most high-tech warship when it set sail.
The story of what happened to the ship has gone down in history: despite being one of the Swedish navy’s biggest achievements
Image source: Heisjayy , Dennis Jarvis/Flickr
#3 Berlin Brandenburg Airport
It was slated to open on June 3, 2012. So great was the anticipation, public broadcaster rbb planned to go live for 24 hours covering it. Just before the opening date, inspectors reported some 120,000 defects, including fire safety issues.
Image source: Heisjayy, Jon Worth/Flickr
It sounds obvious that we can and should learn from the mistakes of others. However, things aren’t as simple. Often, people fail to learn from their own mistakes, repeating the very same behaviors with negative consequences again. And again. And again.
According to Professor Pragya Agarwal from Loughborough University, when it comes to thinking, behavioral patterns, and decision-making, people often repeat mistakes.
“The reason can be found in the way our brain processes information and creates templates that we refer to again and again. These templates are essentially shortcuts, which help us make decisions in the real world. But these shortcuts, known as heuristics, can also make us repeat our errors.”
Agarwal argues that human beings aren’t naturally rational. And they tend to filter out the noise from information overload in order to avoid becoming confused and exhausted.
#4 The S-81 Isaac Peral
The submarine started production in 2013 as part of a new quartet for the Spanish navy. Ince it’s submerged, the Isaac Peral may never be able to resurface again. The mistake is said to have been a result of a pesky decimal point placed wrongly.
Image source: Heisjayy, NavantiaOficial
#5 Mars Climate Orbiter
In September 1999, NASA’s 638-kilogram robotic space probe the Mars Climate Orbiter burned up and broke into pieces as it neared its destination after 10 months of traveling. The reason for its failure to touch ground lay with the people who sent it.
#6 The Baltic Ace
The 23,500 tonne ship was lost 65km off the Dutch coast after colliding with Cyprian container ship the Corvus J. The accident killed 11 of its 24 crew members. Moreover, it sank over 1,400 new cars that were being brought from Japan and Tokyo to Russia.
Image source: Jayysein, Joost J. Bakker IJmuiden/Flickr
The professor notes that people’s brains are lazy, and it takes significant cognitive effort to change the mental shortcuts that they have already built up. So, even if human beings are conscious of repeating the same mistakes, they still tend to fall back on old behavior patterns.
“We only see parts of the world. We tend to notice things that are repeating, whether there are any patterns or not, and we tend to preserve memory by generalising and resorting to type. We also draw conclusions from sparse data and use cognitive shortcuts to create a version of reality that we implicitly want to believe in. This creates a reduced stream of incoming information, which helps us connect dots and fill in gaps with stuff we already know,” Agarwal writes.
#7 Lake Peigneur Disaster
In 1980, a drilling exhibition done by Texaco triggered a cataclysmic series of events that turned an 11-foot-deep freshwater body of water in Louisiana known as Lake Peigneur into a 1,300-foot-deep saltwater lake.
Image source: Jayysein, Scene by Me
#8 Deadly Skyscrapers
In 2014, it was built in London. As summer came, citizens of London began complaining that the buildings south-facing surface was causing strong rays of sunlight at certain points in the day. The highly concentrated beam was capable of melting tiles.
Image source: Jayysein, Matthew Black/Flickr
#9 Seongsu Bridge Collapse
Although the bridge was designed to withstand a maximum of 36.3-tonne weight per car, vehicles weighing 47.3-tonnes were also using the bridge to commute. These combined factors cost the State Council $185,000 in compensation to the victims
Image source: Jayysein, Señor Onion’s Archives
That’s not to say that we’re completely doomed. We can, after all, change our behaviors and develop new habits.
One thing that we can do is become more comfortable making mistakes in the first place. Feeling ashamed of our failures and hiding them increases the probability that we’ll repeat them.
However, when we don’t beat ourselves up over our mistakes and can accept them in public, we can take in new information that helps us correct them.
#10 Aol Buys Time Warner ($183 Billion Loss)
In 2000, at the peak of the dot-com bubble, AOL merged with Time Warner for $182 billion. The deal collapsed as the bubble burst and advertising revenue declined, leading to a record-breaking $99 billion loss in 2002.
Image source: Wikipedia, Warner Bros. Discovery – Lippincott Mercer
#11 20th Century Fox & Star Wars Rights ($27 Billion)
Thinking Star Wars would flop, the studio let George Lucas keep the merchandising and licensing rights in exchange for a lower directing fee. This cost the studio an estimated $27 billion in revenue over the following decades.
Image source: Wikipedia, Harrison Jeffs
#12 Chernobyl Disaster ($720 Billion Inflation-Adjusted)
A 1986 reactor test at the Chernobyl nuclear plant went wrong due to a known design flaw and operator error. It remains the costliest accident in history.
Image source: Wikipedia, spoilt.exile/Flickr
Once you’ve finished reading through this list, we’d like to hear your insights.
Which of these historical moments surprised you the most or gave you a fresh perspective on the world?
What do you personally think were the biggest, most impactful disasters in human history? What do you think everyone can do to really learn from the past and avoid making the same mistakes in the future?
On a deeply personal level, how good would you say you are at learning from your own mistakes? Share your thoughts in the comments down below.
#13 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill ($65 Billion)
An explosion on BP’s drilling rig in 2010 was caused by shortcuts and cheap materials. Cleanup, penalties, and compensation costs reached approximately $65 billion.
#14 French “Wrong Trains” Fiasco ($20+ Billion)
In 2014, the French rail company SNCF ordered 2,000 new trains that were too wide for 1,300 of the country’s older station platforms. The cost to modify the platforms was approximately €50 million on top of the $20 billion train order.
Image source: Flickr (not the actual photo)
#15 Lost Bitcoin ($180+ Million)
In 2013, James Howells accidentally threw away a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoins he had mined in 2009. The drive remains buried in a landfill.
#16 Lotus Riverside Disaster
The residential complex consists of 11 new high-rise apartment blocks. However, one of the 13-story buildings suddenly collapsed as at 27th June 2009. Luckily, it somehow missed the surrounding blocks. Thus avoiding a devastating domino effect.
Image source: Jayysein, InfoBuddy87
#17 Blockbuster Rejects Netflix ($150 Billion Opportunity Cost):
In 2000, Netflix co-founders offered to sell their DVD-by-mail service to Blockbuster for $50 million. Blockbuster’s CEO reportedly laughed at the offer. Today, Netflix is valued at over $150 billion, while Blockbuster went bankrupt.
Image source: Wikipedia, zhrefch
#18 Ronald Wayne Sells Apple Stake (Hundreds Of Billions)
The third co-founder of Apple sold his 10% stake in the company for just $800 in 1976. Today, that 10% stake would be worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Image source: Wikipedia, ColdFusion
#19 Daimler-Chrysler Merger ($29 Billion Loss)
Daimler-Benz acquired Chrysler for $37 billion in 1998, but cultural clashes led to a failed partnership. They sold most of Chrysler in 2007 for only $7 billion.
Image source: Wikipedia, Pictures of Money/Flickr (not the actual photo)
#20 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster ($200+ Billion)
The 2011 disaster was partly caused by negligence, such as placing backup generators in flood-prone areas. Cleanup costs are estimated to exceed $200 billion.
Image source: Wikipedia, Channel 4 News
#21 The Inalchuq Insult (1218 Ce)
Inalchuq, a governor of the Khwarezmian Empire, executed a peaceful trade caravan sent by Genghis Khan. When Khan sent diplomats to demand an apology, the Shah killed them too. In response, the Mongols launched an apocalyptic invasion that completely erased the Khwarezmian Empire from the map.
Image source: Wikipedia, May, Timothy (2018) The Mongol Empire, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
#22 The Sack Of Constantinople (1204 Ce)
During the Fourth Crusade, the Crusaders became so heavily indebted to Venice that they detoured to loot Constantinople—the greatest Christian city of the East—to pay their bills. This permanently weakened the Byzantine Empire, leading to its eventual fall to the Ottomans in 1453.
Image source: Wikipedia, warfarehistorynetwork
#23 The An Lushan Trust (755 Ce)
The Tang Dynasty’s Emperor Xuanzong granted massive power and wealth to general An Lushan. Instead of protecting China, An Lushan launched a rebellion that killed millions and ended the Tang Dynasty’s “Golden Age”.
Image source: Wikipedia
#24 The Titanic’s Ignored Warnings (1912)
Despite receiving multiple ice warnings, the crew of the Titanic maintained high speed in a dangerous area. The disaster cost approximately $7.5 million in 1912 dollars (about $168 million today) and led to the loss of 1,517 lives.
Image source: Wikipedia
#25 The Bussey Street Bridge (1887)
To save money, a railroad hired the lowest bidder, a man named Hewins, who had zero engineering experience. He built a bridge that literally fell apart, killing and wounding over 80 people and leading to major reforms in the “low bidder” process.
Image source: Wikipedia, Boston Daily Globe
#26 The Darien Scheme (1690s)
Scotland attempted to establish a colony in Panama to control trade between the Atlantic and Pacific. The project was so poorly planned it bankrupted the nation, losing nearly half of all the money in Scotland at the time. This financial ruin was a primary factor in Scotland joining the Acts of Union with England in 1707.
Image source: Wikipedia, Connor Mollison/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
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