The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! 😌
didireadthat's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
I loved this book. It was full of great examples, and written in a way that easily explains many aspects of structural engineering. The short chapters made the book go buy quickly and I appreciated the optimism in the wake of many mistakes.Â
The book kinda of lost me when it started to show its age talking about computers and it was difficult for me to stay interested around chapter 14. But everything I liked at the beginning was brought back in the conclusion. Overall a great book and I wish I had come across it sooner.Â
The book kinda of lost me when it started to show its age talking about computers and it was difficult for me to stay interested around chapter 14. But everything I liked at the beginning was brought back in the conclusion. Overall a great book and I wish I had come across it sooner.Â
andrewrmart's review against another edition
3.0
A book for structural engineers about learning from failure (obviously), which in its first half is fairly accessible to the layperson. Chapter 2 is one of my favorite chapters of anything, ever, but the writing and case studies started to lose me about half way through.
prynne31's review
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Great info! Just wish there were an updated edition to cover the last 30 yrs.
da1sy's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
I found this book very interesting and it’s real life examples helped make concepts easier to understand.
rdiii's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
2.0
Frankly, a short book is the worst format possible for the content.Â
The concept would make a fantastic 45 minute lecture in an engineering ethics course. It would also make a good textbook for in depth exploration of the role of failure on future design, risk mitigation, historical data, etc.Â
however a small book gets the worst of both worlds. It doesn’t have the depth to be more useful than thought provoking, and is far too long and drawn out to just be thought provoking.Â
The concept would make a fantastic 45 minute lecture in an engineering ethics course. It would also make a good textbook for in depth exploration of the role of failure on future design, risk mitigation, historical data, etc.Â
however a small book gets the worst of both worlds. It doesn’t have the depth to be more useful than thought provoking, and is far too long and drawn out to just be thought provoking.Â
carrix2's review against another edition
3.0
This book would be a great resource for engineering students, as it provides a basis for studying failures to prevent failure in the future. The examples are specific to structural engineering, but the concepts could be applied to any discipline.
I admit, I was assigned to read this book when I was in engineering school in 2005 and never did. I finally pulled it off my shelf and read it in 2021 and found it was drastically out of date even when it was first assigned. In this book, the most exciting and advanced form of technology is the Speak & Spell. The most devastating structural failure is the walkways of the Kansas City Regency Hotel. Granted, that was devastating, but I'm sure we could draw many lessons from the Twin Towers, Oklahoma City bombing, and even the very recent collapse of an apartment building in Florida. Not only that, but the technology we use to test and evaluate structures and materials have come so far!
Being the mid-19080s, the author is not overly comfortable with the "digital slide rule" (calculator) and does not trust computers at all. "While the computer can be used very quickly as a data clerk, it cannot be used very quickly to analyze engineering problems." I understand his stance for that time period, but it's another way the book is not relatable today.
I'm not sure this book would be interesting to the lay person. It is quite dry and has a definite "textbook" feel. I'm not sure I took anything from it, except some details about engineering failures I didn't know.
I admit, I was assigned to read this book when I was in engineering school in 2005 and never did. I finally pulled it off my shelf and read it in 2021 and found it was drastically out of date even when it was first assigned. In this book, the most exciting and advanced form of technology is the Speak & Spell. The most devastating structural failure is the walkways of the Kansas City Regency Hotel. Granted, that was devastating, but I'm sure we could draw many lessons from the Twin Towers, Oklahoma City bombing, and even the very recent collapse of an apartment building in Florida. Not only that, but the technology we use to test and evaluate structures and materials have come so far!
Being the mid-19080s, the author is not overly comfortable with the "digital slide rule" (calculator) and does not trust computers at all. "While the computer can be used very quickly as a data clerk, it cannot be used very quickly to analyze engineering problems." I understand his stance for that time period, but it's another way the book is not relatable today.
I'm not sure this book would be interesting to the lay person. It is quite dry and has a definite "textbook" feel. I'm not sure I took anything from it, except some details about engineering failures I didn't know.
pdkauffmann's review against another edition
The book starts out slow, with some really generic information about the engineering discipline, so in that sense it's probably better for people who haven't spent 4 years of their lives learning about engineering. After that, though, he gets into some really interesting case studies about engineering disasters and the like, and that part's pretty fascinating for everybody.