Petroski/Tharp

1. What do Petroski and Tharp have to say about the importance of revision?

Petroski and Tharp call for a creative process that focuses on iteration – Constant revision – because the failures of a idea are a necessary part of its growth.  Revision is an indispensable tool at the fingertips of any creator.

Although it is unpleasant, revision is vital.

The way Petroski and Tharp think of revision, reminds me of the theory of evolution. The bad ideas get changed in a way that adapts them into a new idea. This is almost the exact opposite of Dodd and Smith's idea of "throwing away" ideas. Tharp and Petroski basicly want you to "get fixated". well... that may be pushing it.

2. What are some of the criteria by which Petroski and Tharp each define failure, and what role does failure play in revision?

Tharp makes a distinction between public and private failures, the former of which is much more embarrassing and thus jarring.  Petroski defines any small error to be a failure, like a small failure to "cracks" in an engineer's design.

This reminds me of an old quote. When Thomas Edison worked on re-inventing the lightbulb, he fail many times.  700 iterations, i think... And when asked about his 700 failures he said, "I did not fail 700 times. I succeeded at proving those 700 designs would not work!"

All in all, I think I like the way Edison looks at things...