Failure is Central to engineering. Every single calculation that an engineer makes is a failure calculation..

Engineers are not superhuman. They make mistakes in their assumptions, in their calculations, in their conclusions. That they make mistakes is forgiv….

Case studies of failure should be made a part of the vocabulary of every engineer so that he or she can recall or recite them when something in a new….

There's so much written about the Titanic, and it's hard to separate what's fact and what's fiction. My understanding is that the way the Titanic was….

No one wants to learn from mistakes, but we cannot learn enough from successes to go beyond the state of the art..

The plain wooden toothpick, it may be argued, is among the simplest of manufactured things. It consists of a single part, made of a single material, ….

Engineering, like poetry, is an attempt to approach perfection. And engineers, like poets, are seldom completely satisfied with their creations. They….

Form follows failure..

Engineering is achieving function while avoiding failure..

I emphasize that virtually every engineering calculation is ultimately a failure calculation, because without a failure criterion against which to me….

Our expectations for a technology rise with its advancement..

What is commonly overlooked in using the computer is the fact that the central goal of design is still to obviate failure, and thus it is critical to….

The bookshelf, like the book, has become an integral part of civilization as we know it, its presence in a home practically defining what it means to….

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 as….

Design is nothing if not decision making..

Whether or not science can be applied to that mental construct [i.e. the designed entity] is a matter of availability. If there is body of scientific….

The most amazing achievement of the computer software industry is its continuing cancellation of the steady and staggering gains made by the computer….

A failed structure provides a counterexample to a hypothesis and shows us incontrovertibly what cannot be done, while a structure that stands without….

The Book of the Heart provides a fresh perspective on the influence of the book as artifact on our language and culture. Reading this book broadens o….

Any design, whether its for a ship or an airplane, must be done in anticipation of potential failures..