Come pensano gli ingegneri

by Guru Madhavan

Engineering comes in many forms. Dubai’s Burj Khalifa— the world’s tallest building—looks nothing like Microsoft’s Office Suite, and digital surround sound doesn’t work like a city-wide telecommunication grid. Yet these engineering feats have much in common.


Applied Minds explores the unique visions and mental tools of engineers and reveals the enormous—and often understated—influence they wield in transforming problems into opportunities. Guru Madhavan shows how the concepts of prototyping, reliability, standards, optimization, and feedback are put to use in fields as diverse as transportation, retail, healthcare, and entertainment. The resulting account pairs the innovators of modern history—Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers, Steve Jobs—with everything from ATMs and the ZIP code system to the disposable diaper. Equal parts personal, practical, and profound, Applied Minds peeks into the inner workings of complex systems and celebrates the men and women who shape our world..

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Engineering, Psychology, Self Help, Business, Technology

183 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2015

Reviews

[Mara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh! It probably deserves 2.5 stars, but the whole affair just felt kind of wishy-washy— a mix of introducing lay-engineering terminology, and anecdotal narratives. I'd give it a 3-star rating, were it not for the fact that the author commits what, in my mind, is a cardinal sin. It's not PIN number ! The acronym P-I-N stands for “personal identification number” (which is even mentioned in the book), so PIN number is ‘personal identification number number’. This is somewhat forgivable with an acronym, but he then goes on to do the same thing with an initialism, ATM machine , which is out-and-out enraging. Again, he's repeating a word that's part of the initialism: “automated teller machine.” And this is in a section about the advent of the ATM— so, no excuses.

[Andrew Paek · Rating 2 out of 5]

Guru Madhavan is the sort of writer that promises much and delivers on little. Although the examples themselves may be interesting, he goes into so little detail on how the engineering mindset was used in each one that there is almost no point in talking about the example at all. This book is little more than a collection of interesting anecdotes, with little analysis involved. What one sees with each example is a brief introduction of some aspect of strategic engineering thinking, an introduction of an example, and then a conclusion where Madhavan essentially says "yes, this particular project never would have succeeded without the engineering mindset." I was disappointed because I expected so much more out of this book than I got. He would have been better served giving an in-depth discussion of two or three examples rather than blazing through so many.

[Patrick Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a gem.

Madhavan shares the essence of an engineer's approach and predisposition to creating solutions, but what makes this even more worthwhile is he points out examples of how those abilities can be adopted and applied in many disciplines. As a software engineer, I thought it was well balanced because he also illustrates, with excellent examples, the short comings of being too engineerish in one's thinking and the value of an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving. It's not a technical book, it's more about exploring the philosophy behind creating solutions based on three basic insights: structure, constraints and tradeoffs. The other element to Madhavan's prose that makes it an enjoyable read is the focus he has on the people in his case studies. He has an appreciation for the sense of humanity behind many great (and not so great) engineering accomplishments.

[Jay · Rating 1 out of 5]

I stopped reading this book halfway through, so admittedly it may have a stellar second half that I missed. This book provides little to no insight into how engineers think but is instead a collection of short anecdotes that lack any connecting theme. When discussing problems engineers have faced, the author would go into no detail about how the engineers reached their conclusions but would simply state what those conclusions were and then discuss a list of "engineering terms" vaguely related to the problem the author had just outlined. It was hard to connect the concluding discussions that followed each story because the stories were told in such little detail that it was impossible to understand the relevant issues.

Here are two quotes from the book that particularly frustrated me

"In IBM's case, the primary objective was to minimize traffic on Stockholm, which turned out to be a function of peak automobile usage"

"Further, in the name ... of not wanting to obscure the view from the deck ... the number of lifeboats on board [the Titanic] was woefully inadequate. These were ... what engineers would call aggressive trade-offs."

[Nitish Kumar Singh · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has interesting case studies like the development of google maps, burj khalifa, cleaning of Ganga river etc. It does have good suggestions for engineers, e.g. engineers naturally tend to focus first on the product and then on its users. For an anthropologist, it’s the exact reverse: people come first, then the product.

[Benjamin]

Short and to the point: Madhavan discusses broad issues in engineering--for example, the use of prototyping--with short anecdotes about the development of certain products or systems--the cellphone, mass-produced penicillin, French artillery. Or at least that's what he tries to do and doesn't quite succeed: the broad issues never really get clarified, the anecdotes never really connect with or illustrate the issues.

It reads, in a way, like a coffeebook, full of interesting cocktail chatter about engineering, along with a prologue extolling engineers (why don't we celebrate them more?) and an epilogue noting the cost-benefit of any advancement and how engineering can be turned to evil. (Wait, should we celebrate engineers or make them take morality classes? Or both?)

There are some interesting notes and anecdotes here--and the book is short and fast--but it's not really what the subtitle promises.

[Kota Pain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Letto dal punto di vista di una fisica, ero alla ricerca di spunti per degradare gli ingegneri e in effetti ce ne sono molti, anche se devo ammettere che alcuni meritano una certa riconoscenza. Il libro si sviluppa come una serie di episodi chiave per la storia dell'applicaizone dell'ingegneria, seguiti da spiegazioni più o meno tecniche sempre comprensibili e godibili. Moltissimi, quasi troppi, i riferimenti a persone e fatti (30 pagine di bibliografia!). Tutto sommato un buon libro, anche se coinvolgente solo fino a un certo punto stimola la curiosità.

[Lester Cockram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting stories, examples, trade offs, and the important roles anthropologists play in the engineering field. Everyone is an engineer at some point in the way we design our destinies.

[Dido · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting stories about the engineering mindset and its use in solving problems.

[Ami Iida · Rating 4 out of 5]

the frameworks of thinking

[Chris Esposo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good overview of systems thinking through a tour of historical vignettes of (mostly) straight forward engineering projects which include: The development of Google Maps, the UPC barcode by IBM, the development of the ATM, the problem of cleaning the Ganges river, and a few others.

The most surprising and human account was the story behind the development of the e911 system, which was motivated by the murder of an Industrial Engineer's daughter in Rochester.

As much as I recall the overall process that the author outlines for system thinking is prototyping by starting backwards, identifying constraints, outlining a process, optimize, making sure optimized solutions are robust. I may be missing a step and commuting some of the order because ironically, the book isn't really systemic with respect to repeatedly applying an identified set of sequential systems processes to each historical problem. At the very least, it doesn't come off as a systemic analysis of these case studies in the audiobook. Would have benefited the book to include some quick bullet points and/or charts outlining these principles in a separate pdf.

The cleaning of the Ganges and the failure of the Eastman-Kodak company to accept the development of digital photography as a viable market product (first built by one of their engineers) are good examples of how human systems need to be factored in immediately to both the engineering and design process, lest they ruin the engineers well-made plans. This point is also reinforced in the last 1/5 of the book, that focuses more on design thinking and how ethnographers have successfully been applied to product development.

I was looking for something more systemic that I could apply to my own processes to decrease code development time, and this probably fails for that use-case. However, the book still is good for those who wish to be introduced to a general engineering mindset, for general problem-solving approaches. Recommend.

[Jia Cherng · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant book that describes the mindset and brilliance of engineering using highly relevant and connected examples.

The book highlights the core thinking of engineers. A quote by Ruth David in the book explained that it is crucial to look at a problem in different ways, not just look at their pieces but also their interdependencies; the totality and what it means. Another important thing to remember is that as much as engineering is about innovation, producing utility from constraints, trade-offs and structure are equally if not more the engineer's way.

As much as engineering is about machines and automation, the final goal should always be to improve the life of people. However, the public rarely if ever know what to expect and what will improve their life. The ZIP code, the time zone were all criticised as part of a communist plot to control and exert more influence on the people. As an engineer, you won't get all the recognition you deserved, criticisms from ignorant people are rife. The lessons in responsive design, that experience from life and social interaction can be a powerful force in influencing engineering was also an inspiring one.

One paragraph of the book stuck with me. "After creating a horse that's 2 times as tall. They discovered it to be a troubled, inefficient beast. Not only was it two times as long, resulting in an overall mass eight times greater than normal. But the cross-sectional area of its veins and arteries was only four times that of a normal horse, calling for its heart to work twice as hard. The surface area of its feet was four times that of a normal horse, but each foot had to support twice the weight per unit surface area compared to a normal horse. Ultimately, the sickly animal had to be put down". This analogy perfectly exemplifies one thing, that no matter how many calculations or modelling you made, success in engineering is never guaranteed until you put it to the test.

[Kevin Cotter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Book for Beginners

As someone who’s just starting to think about pursuing engineering as a major, it was great to learn more about the history and industriousness of great and important, and often overlooked, achievements in engineering. Not a very technical book at all, straight up just stories that connect with each other in the chapters. Sometimes the problems are different with common solutions, and sometimes they’re two completely disparate events that converge in the future to solve a new challenge. I enjoyed the writing style. Not for anyone familiar with engineering, definitely a beginners book. As this is the first book I’ve read on the subject, I find it encouraging and stimulating and can’t wait to dig deeper.

[Jared Zornitzer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Applied Minds was an interesting insight on the mind of an engineer. Madhavan goes into detail on the various principles that engineers consider when working on projects. He also gives interesting examples of engineering principles in real world examples, which are the best part of the book. He masterfully embeds these examples in the book between definitions of principles. At certain points, his writing was slightly redundant and boring, especially in the eyes of a teenager. I think that the target audience Madhavan had in mind was engineers, not future engineers. I recommend this book if you are interested in engineering, but if you are young, you might find yourself counting down the pages until the end.

[S.P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book,

I spent my college years hanging out with engineers but never really looked into what they did.
As a creative thinker, this book allowed me to understand a system of thinking that has me reexamining how to go about my own creative projects.
I appreciated the author using anecdotal information that made it's point, and also taught me some valuable engineering history.
I expect to come back to this book in the future when I am problem solving and need a refresher course on ways to handle it.

My big hope from reading this book is that when I hang out with my old engineering friends again, I'll throw out words like 'prototyping' and 'Modular design' and see how they react when I know what I'm talking about 3:)

[Timeo Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book does a decent job of boiling down the engineering process. into parts and then using historical figures to represent each point. however, I felt the book to be lacking in content.

Regardless, here is the engineering mindset:

1. mixing and matching.
2. optimizing
3. enhancing efficiency and reliability
4. standardizing with flexibility
5. solutions under constraints
6. crossing over and adapting
7. prototyping
8. learning from others

The core elements - structure, constraints, trade-offs and it's basic concepts( including recombinantion, optimization, efficiency and prototyping) are equally effective in finding solutions to non-engineering challenges.

[James W · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read that one can tell was written by an engineer. The writing is very structured and straightforward with numbered sections. Madhavan writes through anecdotes and story-telling, which can be useful at times, but the continual use throughout the book made me lose track of the main topics, especially with the lack of analysis following these anecdotes. Some of them felt incongruous, while others were more farfetched.

There are few interesting paragraphs regarding how engineers think, the ethics behind decision-making, the importance of listening, and the need for user-based products, but the rest of the book could use some work.

[Meaningless · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a short and sweet book, perfect for what I was looking for. I've seen that critical thinking intelligence is largely chalked up to people possessing the optimal patterns of thought, so I bought this book to expand my line of thinking to improve in academia and life, as well as my personal goal of better understanding systems. This book provides some quick nuggets of knowledge that I so craved.

Definitely in my top 10 recommended self-improvement book list. I've been applying these lessons to countless facets in my life.

[Eric Finlay · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a disjointed and confused mess of a book. It is oddly padded and meandering, while failing to take the time to flesh out it's points beyond stating them outright without discussion, or worse, implying them vaguely before moving on.

If you've ever listened to an engineer opine about something they don't actually understand, this book is 200 pages of that. If you haven't experienced this, don't, it's miserable.

[Valery Dostovalova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Признаться практической ценности я не получила. Была пара мыслей про структуру, эксперименты и ограничения. На этом все. Но почитать примеры, когда в самых неожиданных местах срабатывала инженерная мысль, было интересно. Например, про надувные трубы на лондонской олимпиаде или подход Хичкока к своим эталонным триллерам. Но применять пока нечего.

[Roman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Большое количество примеров как разные инженеры чего придумали и наинженерили, довольно вдохновляюще. Общее описание майндсетов для инженера. Отдельного внимания заслуживает список использованной литературы и примечания, всё это суммарно составляет примерно 1/5 всей книги и в целом чуть ли не полезнее всего остального =)
Приятное и полезное чтение в общем.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up to better understand engineering as an aspiring software developer. I especially liked Madhavan's points that constraints do not supress creativity, but direct it and that engineering is optimized within the context of philosophy, literature, and science -- not without this broader context of expertise.

[Michiel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book delving into the mindset of how engineers view the world and how engineers perspective on problem solving is different to others. The book is described using various examples of problems that plague society and the solutions that engineers sought out to rectify. Interesting book

[Benjamin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This seemed to be more of "why it is important to think like an engineer" than "how engineers think". I stopped about halfway through. Somewhere in there he explains that engineers see structure where others can't but doesn't explain how very well - in my opinion.

[Christopher Mcdermott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but a bit disjointed

Interesting examples but a bit disjointed in the overall narative . I would have like to have seen the contrast with how people think from other proffessions.

[Ryan Maynard · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice coffee-table read, or something for a younger person to help introduce them to breadth rather than depth. Pleasant and quick read targeted to the layperson. It is not intersection of neuroscience, psychology, and the ingredients for a predisposition to technical professions.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a well-written book. The topic is of great interest to me, and I wasn't disappointed. some of his examples are very good, and I intend to reference them in my own speaking and writing.

[Nico · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lettura carina sul mondo dell'ingegneria e degli ingegneri. Passa in rassegna a numerose scoperte e invenzioni fatte da loro: la tecnica è fondamentale, ma l'estro può fare la differenza. Consigliato in particolare a chi studia ingegneria!

[Steve Baker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Madhavan flits from example to example like a butterfly collecting nector. never stopping long enough to flesh out examples, I kept hoping there would be more continuity to complete a point.
As an engineer, I learned nothing new from this book.

[Sergey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Муть