"Success Through Failure"

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at Henry Petroski's, "Success Through Failure" about technological innovation. In particular, the paper discusses the thesis of the text, its effectiveness, and the broad scope of the volume. The paper also examines the organization of the work, its "style," its use of sources, and to which type of reader it seems best-suited. The paper concludes that, while not a path-breaking book or an engrossing one, it is a solid contribution to the general literature and should be seen as such.

From the Paper:

"The scope of the book is impressive insofar as every conceivable "angle" is covered when detailing the dramatic and often uneven process by which technological innovation comes about. For example, the first chapter discusses how technological break-throughs often took place in response to the perceived limitations of previous technologies. The second chapter of the text devotes itself to looking at how the nature of the design problem can create a greater or lesser probability that certain key features will be overlooked. That is to say, if the design problem is complex and if it seeks to successfully incorporate a variety of different functions, the odds are high that the production process will lead to failures of one kind or another - and thus to "after-the-fact" adaptations and modifications. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Petroski, Henry. Success through Failure. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006.

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