Henry Petroski Quotes
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.
Petroski, Henry. Design Paradigms: Case Histories of Error and Judgment in Engineering. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
While all recognize the importance of that critical intellectual skill, few have developed the skill and ability and all of us make errors frequently. Some, however, are and have been better than others.
Henry Petroski is an American engineer specializing in failure analysis. A professor both of civil engineering and history at Duke University, he is also a prolific author. Petroski has written over a dozen books – beginning with To Engineer is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design (1985) and including a number of titles detailing the industrial design history of common, everyday objects, such as pencils, paper clips, toothpicks, and silverware. His first book was made into the film When Engineering Fails. He is a frequent lecturer and a columnist for the magazines American Scientist and Prism.
