It was a Tuesday, and I was staring at a million-dollar graveyard.

The screen in front of me displayed the remains of a product launch that had followed every best practice in the modern business playbook. We had the data: focus groups had validated the concept, A/B tests had optimized the landing page to a 99% confidence level, and our predictive algorithms forecasted a comfortable 15% market penetration. We had the psychology: we'd leveraged scarcity ("Only 50 units left!"), social proof ("10,000 marketers already subscribed!"), and a frictionless, one-click buying journey. The campaign was a masterpiece of linear logic-a straight, well-paved road from problem to solution.

And it failed. Spectacularly.