Why Do Some Societies Make Disastrous Decisions?

In Jared Diamond's article, he writes about the mistakes societies make and attempts to figure out why they "shoot themselves in the foot". He states that a group may fail to anticipate a problem, may fail to perceive a problem once it has arrived, or they may perceive it but fail to solve it. Lastly they may attempt to solve a problem but simply fail. He lays out specific examples of societies, who have historically made costly mistakes. He blames some of the mistakes on the fact that they may have forgotten previous experiences or not learned from those experiences. I thought this article was intriguing but difficult to read. The way Diamond writes can be very confusing.