This is a book about failure and how failure drives the design of all things.

Henry Petroski talks about forks, knifes, spoons, paper clips, screws, post-its, zippers, hammers, saws, metal (beberage) cans, ..., and how all these objects evolved through the perception that they failed in some (even if minor) way. The whole book is Petroski's argument against the "form follows function" adage.

The only fault I found on this book is that it is, in my opinion, a bit lengthy. Half-way through the book you will already agree that it is failure, in its many forms, that ultimately drives the evolution of things... ( )

All about the context: I found this book to be very illuminating in light of what I do (interaction design) and the books I have read recently on the latest in computational neuroeconomics, maninstream pattern recognotion theory, interaction design, visual design, industrial design, computer engineering, new marketing theory, and information design around complex systems. In fact, this book is almost a stake in the ground on how the manufacturing process, invention, and branding created the artifacts in our environment. Better than the Industrial Desig books I read 10 years ago. I think we would call these "case studies" and "use cases" in modern terminology. I mention all the fields above because every single one of them have an exact doppelganger in the past.

This book is a brilliant look at process and can be used as a research tool when looking at why something like the iPod caught on and why almost everything that has been developed at MIT in recent history (except eInk) has never gained a foothold in popular American culture. In the face of the rise of "everyware" computing, it's adoption in places like Korea and Japan, and only limited use by the rich for personal security in the US, I would say this is a must read for contemporary designers, no matter what depth of complexity their task at hand. This book predates the web, making it very enlightening in light of user-centered design in recent years.

This book looks at the relationship of genius design, corporate R D, pop culture, the feedback loop for product innovation, and the adoption of standards around SIMPLE things. This means these case studies can be used to analyse the failures (and how failure breeds innovation, not "form follows function") of our complex information economy and embedded systems. Society has gone through it all before. And as projects become increasingly team based and open sourced (like Stanford's new d.school), just about anyone can find value in this book based within this context.

Henry Petroski unleashes his research skills on the entirety of invented and designed material culture and asks the question: why? Rather than follow the traditional wisdom that "form follows function," Petroski argues that form really follows failure. Instead of there being one, predestined, "right" way for something to work, invention and design work as a form of evolution where new ideas build on the failure of old ideas to accomplish things as well as the inventor would like.

Petroski covers an admirable amount of stuff in this one volume -- some objects in brief case studies, and others in more detailed chapters. Research in patent files, corporate histories, and biographical information on little-known inventors all enrich the author's argument. At his best when analyzing and admiring the ideas and people that change material culture, the flow of the narrative is occasionally brought to a halt when Petroski stops to hammer on his "form follows failure" thesis to excess and brings the discussion away from the physical artifacts and into the land of theory.

Overall this is an excellent book for anyone interested in engineering, design, or why a paperclip looks like a paperclip. Also recommended: Petroski's The Book on the Bookshelf, which is one of my favorites.

[full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2009/01...] ( )

I enjoyed this book much more than I expected. Normally I am a sucker for the geeky details of how everyday things have evolved, so I expected to enjoy this book. However I finished the book I found myself looking at paper clips, pins and flatware in a completely new way. Which was great for me, but miserable for my staff as I bored them to tears with detailed description of the evolution of paper clips and T-pins.

I just ran across this link in Boing Boing and it epitomizes some of my favorite aspects of the book: http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/10...

I think this is a must-read for those who love geeky details. ( )

Very good book. It shows how every day products have been developed. ( )