Success Through Failure

The Paradox of Design

Henry Petroski

236 pages, parution le 30/03/2006

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Résumé

Design pervades our lives. Everything from drafting a PowerPoint presentation to planning a state-of-the-art bridge embodies this universal human activity. But what makes a great design? In this compelling and wide-ranging look at the essence of invention, distinguished engineer and author Henry Petroski argues that, time and again, we have built success on the back of failure--not through easy imitation of success.

Success through Failure shows us that making something better--by carefully anticipating and thus averting failure--is what invention and design are all about. Petroski explores the nature of invention and the character of the inventor through an unprecedented range of both everyday and extraordinary examples--illustrated lectures, child-resistant packaging for drugs, national constitutions, medical devices, the world's tallest skyscrapers, long-span bridges, and more. Stressing throughout that there is no surer road to eventual failure than modeling designs solely on past successes, he sheds new light on spectacular failures, from the destruction of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940 and the space shuttle disasters of recent decades, to the collapse of the World Trade Center in 2001.

Petroski also looks at the prehistoric and ancient roots of many modern designs. The historical record, especially as embodied in failures, reveals patterns of human social behavior that have implications for large structures like bridges and vast organizations like NASA. Success through Failure--which will fascinate anyone intrigued by design, including engineers, architects, and designers themselves--concludes by speculating on when we can expect the next major bridge failure to occur, and the kind of bridge most likely to be involved.

L'auteur - Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski is Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and Professor of History at Duke University. He is the author of To Engineer Is Human (Vintage), and was the writer and presenter of the BBC television documentary of the same title. His many other books on engineering and design include The Pencil (Knopf), The Evolution of Useful Things (Vintage), and Small Things Considered (Vintage).

Sommaire

Preface
Introduction
From Plato's Cave to PowerPoint
Success and Failure in Design
Intangible Things
Things Small and Large
Building on Success
Stepping-stones to Super-spans
The Historical Future
Notes
Index

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Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	Princeton University Press
Auteur(s)	Henry Petroski
Parution	30/03/2006
Nb. de pages	236
Format	14,5 x 22
Couverture	Relié
Poids	420g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780691122250
ISBN13	978-0-691-12225-0