No one wants to learn from mistakes, but we cannot learn enough from successes to go beyond the state of the art.
Henry PetroskiFailure is Central to engineering. Every single calculation that an engineer makes is a failure calculation.
Henry PetroskiEngineers are not superhuman. They make mistakes in their assumptions, in their calculations, in their conclusions. That they make mistakes is forgivable; that they catch them is imperative. Thus it is the essence of modern engineering not only to be able to check one's own work but also to have one's work checked and to be able to check the work of others.
Henry Petroski