FAQ

What this is · What makes a good nominee · The serious question · The gender gap

What is the Backfire Awards?

Teardowns of historic backfires: famous fixes that worked, then caused a new problem somewhere else. Each teardown credits what the fix got right, follows what went wrong, and names the pattern behind it, so founders and inventors can spot the next one before they ship it. The Midgley goes to backfires at world scale.

What makes a good nominee?

1. It worked. The idea was a clever, successful answer to a real problem. A bad product that never worked doesn't count.
2. It caused harm somewhere else. The damage landed on people or places the inventors weren't thinking about. Leaded gasoline made engines run better, and the lead ended up in children's blood.
3. We say what people knew. Could anyone have seen the harm coming at the time? Midgley's lead hazard was known. The damage Freon did to the ozone layer wasn't understood until 1974.

The full standard is in the community guidelines.

What will win a Midgley thirty years from now?

That is the serious question behind the joke. Better to try and fail than never try. Mostly. Next we will tear down products and decisions being made today and read them against the patterns. It starts with knowing the patterns.

Why are most nominees men?

We estimate women make up only 2 to 5 percent of people who qualify for a Midgley. For most of history, women were kept out of the places where these backfires start: industrial labs, scientific academies, and high-level military and economic planning. Women who did hold power, such as queens and empresses, mostly made local political or military mistakes, not world-scale technical ones.

We want a future where women have every opportunity to win a Midgley. Some say that future would have fewer backfires. We would like to find out. Meet Lizzie Magie.