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

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• Henry Petroski:

  There's so much written about the Titanic, and it's hard to separate what's fact and what's fiction

• Henry Petroski:

  The paradox is that when we model future designs on past successes, we are inviting failure down th

• Henry Petroski:

  I have always been fascinated by the way things work and how they came to take the form that they d

• Henry Petroski:

  I relax by looking at things and reading about things. Even the simplest thing can reveal a great d

• Henry Petroski:

  I was always told that I was good in mathematics, and I guess my grades and standardized test score

• Henry Petroski:

  I'm a firm believer that no matter how small an object is, you can find interesting things out abou

• Henry Petroski:

  Science is about knowing; engineering is about doing.

• Henry Petroski:

  Read and write with a sensitive ear. The craft of writing is very important. Practice the craft.

• Henry Petroski:

  Indeed, an engineer designing a structure is not unlike an artist painting one. Both start with not

• Henry Petroski:

  We can't simply blame the engineers when things go wrong because, no matter how well they plan, thi