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" As long as there are things to wonder about, there are stories to be written about them. That makes me happy, because writing about things seems to be my thing. "
Henry Petroski
Happy
Writing
Wonder
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" I employ case studies of failure into my courses, emphasizing that they teach us much more than studies of success. It is not that success stories cannot serve as models of good design or as exemplars of creative engineering. They can do that, but they cannot teach us how close to failure they are. "
Henry Petroski
Good
Success
Failure
" Failures are much more dramatic than successes, and people like drama. I think this is why automobile races draw such crowds. People expect spectacular crashes, which we tend to find more interesting than cars just racing around the track. The same is true of bridges, buildings, or any structure or machine. "
Henry Petroski
Think
True
People
" 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
How
Understanding
Engineering
" We call the fates of the Titanic and the Concordia - as well as those of the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia - 'accidents.' Foreseeing such undesirable events is what engineers are expected to do. However, design trade-offs leave technological systems open to failings once predicted, but later forgotten. "
Henry Petroski
Engineers
Design
Space
" I'm a firm believer that no matter how small an object is, you can find interesting things out about it and its history. "
Henry Petroski
Find
History
Interesting
" You can almost say that a design error is a human error because, after all, it's we humans who do the designing. "
Henry Petroski
You
Almost
Because
" Companies selling a product play down its vulnerability and emphasize its robustness. But only after technology leaves the dock is it really tested. For human operators in control of a supposedly infallible system, complacency and overconfidence can take over, and caution may be thrown to the wind. "
Henry Petroski
Wind
Technology
Complacency
" 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
History
Reading
Good
" 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
Success
Time
Failure
" No design, no matter how common or seemingly insignificant, is without its adamant critics as well as its ardent admirers. "
Henry Petroski
Critics
Well
Matter
" We can't simply blame the engineers when things go wrong because, no matter how well they plan, things don't always go according to plan. "
Henry Petroski
Matter
Plan
Always
" 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
Design
Failure
Process
" A common misconception about how things such as space shuttles come to be is that engineers simply apply the theories and equations of science. But this cannot be done until the new thing-to-be is conceived in the engineer's mind's eye. Rather than following from science, engineered things lead it. "
Henry Petroski
Science
Mind
Done
" Luxury, not necessity, is the mother of invention. Every artifact is somewhat wanting in its function, and that is what drives its evolution. "
Henry Petroski
Evolution
Luxury
Invention
" Indeed, an engineer designing a structure is not unlike an artist painting one. Both start with nothing but talent, experience, and inspiration. The fresh piece of paper on the drawing board is as blank as the newly stretched piece of canvas. "
Henry Petroski
Experience
Painting
Start
" Science is about knowing; engineering is about doing. "
Henry Petroski
Engineering
Knowing
Doing
" For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by things large and small. I wanted to know what made my watch tick, my radio play, and my house stand. I wanted to know who invented the bottle cap and who designed the bridge. I guess from early on I wanted to be an engineer. "
Henry Petroski
Stand
Bridge
Long
" Any design, whether it's for a ship or an airplane, must be done in anticipation of potential failures. "
Henry Petroski
Ship
Design
Done
" I emphasize that virtually every engineering calculation is ultimately a failure calculation, because without a failure criterion against which to measure the calculated result, it is a meaningless number. "
Henry Petroski
Engineering
Failure
Measure
" As engineers, we were going to be in a position to change the world - not just study it. "
Henry Petroski
World
Change
Change The World
" Read and write with a sensitive ear. The craft of writing is very important. Practice the craft. "
Henry Petroski
Ear
Craft
Important
" Typically, highway bridges have about 50 years. But over in England, they have iron bridges approaching 250 years. In France, there are Roman aqueducts that are approaching 2,000 years old. So a bridge can last a very long time if it's built properly in the first place and then maintained properly. "
Henry Petroski
Bridge
Bridges
Iron
" An over-reliance on past successes is a sure blueprint for future failures. "
Henry Petroski
Sure
Past
Future
" Successful engineering is all about understanding how things break or fail. "
Henry Petroski
Successful
Understanding
Engineering
" All conventional wisdom has an element of truth to it, but good design requires more than an element of truth - it requires an ensemble of correct assumptions and valid calculations. "
Henry Petroski
Wisdom
Design
Assumptions
" Successful design is not the achievement of perfection but the minimization and accommodation of imperfection. "
Henry Petroski
Imperfection
Perfection
Achievement
" Many new technologies come with a promise to change the world, but the world refuses to cooperate. "
Henry Petroski
New
Change The World
Change
" It has been said, by engineers themselves, that given enough money, they can accomplish virtually anything: send men to the moon, dig a tunnel under the English Channel. There's no reason they couldn't likewise devise ways to protect infrastructure from the worst hurricanes, earthquakes and other calamities, natural and manmade. "
Henry Petroski
Money
Moon
Enough
" Because every design must satisfy competing objectives, there necessarily has to be compromise among, if not the complete exclusion of, some of those objectives, in order to meet what are considered the more important of them. "
Henry Petroski
Important
Design
Compromise
" Too much redesign has to do more with fad and fashion than with fitness and function. It is change for the sake of change. Such redesign is not only unnecessary, it is all too often also retrogressive, leading to things that work less effectively than those they were designed to replace. "
Henry Petroski
Fashion
Change
Work