Everything we do is designed, whether we're producing a magazine, a website, or a bridge. Design is really the creative invention that designs everything. - Henry Petroski 1 Share Now -
Relying on nothing but scientific knowledge to produce an engineering solution is to invite frustration at best and failure at worst. - Henry Petroski 2 Share Now -
Because they are so humbled by their creations, engineers are naturally conservative in their expectations of technology. They know that the perfect system is the stuff of science fiction, not of engineering fact, and so everything must be treated with respect. - Henry Petroski 3 Share Now -
I was always told that I was good in mathematics, and I guess my grades and standardized test scores supported that. My worst subjects were those that generally involved a lot of reading - English and history. So, having good test scores in math and mediocre ones in reading, I was naturally advised to major in engineering in college. - Henry Petroski 4 Share Now -
Because they are so humbled by their creations, engineers are naturally conservative in their expectations of technology. They know that the perfect system is the stuff of science fiction, not of engineering fact, and so everything must be treated with respect. - Henry Petroski 5 Share Now -
Failure is central to engineering. Every single calculation that an engineer makes is a failure calculation. Successful engineering is all about understanding how things break or fail. - Henry Petroski 6 Share Now -
Case studies of failure should be made a part of the vocabulary of every engineer so that he or she can recall or recite them when something in a new design or design process is suggestive of what went wrong in the case study. - Henry Petroski 7 Share Now -
As engineers, we were going to be in a position to change the world - not just study it. - Henry Petroski 8 Share Now -
Many of the familiar little things that we use every day have typically evolved over a period of time to a state of familiarity. They balance form and function, elegance and economy, success and failure in ways that are not only acceptable, but also admirable. - Henry Petroski 9 Share Now -
The paradox is that when we model future designs on past successes, we are inviting failure down the line; when we take into account past failures and anticipate potential new ways in which failure can occur, we are more likely to produce successful designs. - Henry Petroski 10 Share Now -
