Best Henry Petroski Quotes
- Engineering is achieving function while avoiding failure. Achieving
- As engineers, we were going to be in a position to change the world - not just study it. Change
- Relying on nothing but scientific knowledge to produce an engineering solution is to invite frustration at best and failure at worst. Best
- It is really want, rather than need, that drives the process of technological evolution. Drives
- Luxury, not necessity, is the mother of invention. Every artifact is somewhat wanting in its function, and that is what drives its evolution. Artifact
- No design, no matter how common or seemingly insignificant, is without its adamant critics as well as its ardent admirers. Adamant
- 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… Among
- Design is nothing if not decision making. Decision
- The space shuttle was designed, at least in part, to broaden our knowledge of the universe. To scientists, the vehicle was a tool; to engineers,… Broaden
- 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… Conservative
- 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… Acceptable
- It seems to be a law of design that for every advantage introduced through redesign, there is an accompanying unintended disadvantage. Accompanying
- 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… All
- Successful design is not the achievement of perfection but the minimization and accommodation of imperfection. Accommodation
- Many new technologies come with a promise to change the world, but the world refuses to cooperate. Change
- 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… Cannot Serve