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Henry Petroski Quotes


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Quotes by Henry Petroski

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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

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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

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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

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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

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The same aspirations to celebrate and uplift the spirit that drove the Egyptians to build the pyramids are still driving us. The things we're doing differ only in magnitude.

~Henry Petroski

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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

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An over-reliance on past successes is a sure blueprint for future failures.

~Henry Petroski

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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, it was their creation.

~Henry Petroski

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Many new technologies come with a promise to change the world, but the world refuses to cooperate.

~Henry Petroski

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Betting on the success of innovative technologies in the marketplace can carry all the uncertainty and risk that betting on the next card in the deck does at a blackjack table in Las Vegas. There is a factor of randomness that must be factored in, but precisely how to do so is anyone's guess.

~Henry Petroski

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Biography

Nationality: American

Type: Author

Born: February 6th, 1942

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