Success through Failure: The Paradox of Design [Hardcover]

Henry Petroski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 27, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0691122253 | ISBN-13: 978-0691122250 | Edition: First Edition

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From the clumsy packaging of Aleve pain reliever to the space shuttle Columbia disaster, this engrossing study mourns and celebrates failed designs that spur further improvement. Civil engineer Petroski, author of The Evolution of Useful Things and other meditations on manufactured objects, reminds us that setbacks teach us more than triumphs. The principle is easy to see in gargantuan construction projects; the art of bridge building, he notes, advances over the rubble of collapsed spans. But the essence of engineering, he contends, is to construe every limiting aspect of existence as a remediable malfunction; even the elemental wooden pointer is an underperforming contraption with a bug—finite length—corrected in the next generation of laser pointers. The moral Petroski draws—success breeds hubris and catastrophe, failure nurtures humility and insight—is worth pondering, but his conceit mainly furnishes a peg for his trademark historical sketches of the world of objects, full of evocative observations of, say, those interludes during the glitch-prone dawn of PowerPoint presentations when "everyone just stood around or sat by and watched in silence as the bashful new technology was coaxed out of its black box." He delivers a lesson in the price of progress and another perceptive look at the relationship between man and his stuff. Photos. B&w illus. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Civil engineer and historian Petroski interprets the 1940 collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge as a cautionary tale for designers. That bridge failed because engineers made it by enlarging a previously successful idea. Wise designers, Petroski insists, must always contemplate the possibility of failure. Indeed, it is usually failure that spurs designers on toward improved blueprints. Failure-induced improvement may mean merely that lecturers can use a laser pointer in place of a yardstick, but it may also mean that physicians can turn to lifesaving diagnostic software far superior to fallible human protocols. The potential for failure manifests itself before the event to those designers blessed with prescience, but often improvements are only implemented in the wake of actual failures. From ancient Roman engineers dismayed at the failure of stone-arch bridges to twenty-first-century American architects stunned by the collapse of the Twin Towers, designers have frequently learned valuable principles through hard tutelage. Lucid and concise, this study invites nonspecialists to share in the challenge of trial-and-error engineering. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press; First Edition edition (February 27, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691122253
• ISBN-13: 978-0691122250
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #585,013 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Henry Petroski is the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and a professor of history at Duke University. The author of more than a dozen previous books, he lives in Durham, North Carolina, and Arrowsic, Maine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible Resource, February 20, 2011

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raphaelgich - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Success through Failure: The Paradox of Design (Paperback)

I'm using this book for my Intro to Structural Engineering class as an extra resource and it's really great. The story-like format and engaging anecdotes make for a pleasant read. It's also very well structured.

I'd recommend this if you also just want an abridged history of engineering design, even though you might not be one.

4.0 out of 5 stars Fail First..Fail Often, December 27, 2011

By 

Robert T. Hess "The Data Coach" (Lebanon, OR) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Success through Failure: The Paradox of Design (Paperback)

"This is the paradox of design: Things that succeed teach us little beyond the fact that they have been successful; things that fail provide incontrovertible evidence that the limits of design have been exceeded. Emulating success risks failure; studying failure increases our chances of success," page 114.

I bought this book because of the title and because I am always trying to find something good in something that is going bad. Eternal optimist. Some people get accused of being "the glass is half full" people. They drive others crazy by always smiling and looking on the bright side of things.

On the scale of possibility, I think I am a "glass isn't there" type person. I try to see things that aren't there yet, help others see those things, find hope in hopeless situations, and stay calm when the wheels are falling off because I have come to understand and realize that failure is a necessary ingredient to success, and I am starting to be less afraid of it. Now, a day rarely goes by that I don't feel like quitting--and I think that might be a good thing. If the work isn't hard, maybe it is not the right work.

During one of the darkest times of World War II, when someone remarked to Churchill that the state of the country was serious but not hopeless, he responded that the situation was hopeless but not serious. I think Churchill could see things that other people couldn't as well.

Success Through Failure is not an educational book. Educators have a tendency to try and avoid failure at all costs. It is almost like we are constantly trying to defend the status quo, or even worse, "create the past." How many times have you heard ideas preceded with this statement, "Back when I was in school..."

This is a book about people who build bridges, buildings, and improve technology. Occupations that require improvement for survival. I think educators can learn a lot from how we address and deal with failure. When these organizations experience failure, they try to figure out what they can do different to eliminate and reduce that failure and then they DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT.

In education, student failure is often viewed as the student's fault or the parent's fault. Historically, there has not been a lot of discussion about what the system (as individuals, groups, schools, or districts) could do different to reduce the failure, but that is starting to change.

There is some evidence that when educators face failure, they are starting by asking why and looking into the mirror. That is the best place to start. The book's best definition of failure can be found on page 51, "Failure is an unacceptable difference between expected and observed performance."

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Necessary Text, June 20, 2011

By 

Adam Saltsman (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Success through Failure: The Paradox of Design (Hardcover)

I really hate how Petroski writes; a grumpier, more curmudgeonly engineer there has never been. But it's worth it - great research and a very strong perspective make this an essential ingredient for the designer mindset.