The Things We Make

Starred review from October 24, 2022
Chemical engineer Hammack (Eight Amazing Engineering Stories) makes a fascinating case that engineering isn’t the same as science in this sweeping history. He defines engineering as “solving problems using rules of thumb that cause the best change in a poorly understood situation using available resources,” and suggests that such problem-solving is “the force that has created the human world as we know it.” He begins with medieval cathedrals—immense, beautiful, and durable structures built by masons using “experience-derived, provisional guidelines, none of which guarantee a correct answer, yet when woven together create works of stunning utility, reliability, and beauty”—and hopscotches forward through breakthroughs in, for instance, ceramics that were made thanks to “key strategies of the engineering method” (including “building on past knowledge” and “accepting trade-offs”), and the advent of the microwave oven, which became ubiquitous despite being “a failed version of what the Raytheon engineers were trying to build.” Hammack brilliantly delineates the role of trial and error in human progress, and presents a knockout argument that a perfect understanding of the world is not a prerequisite to innovation. This clever and curious account delivers.

July 1, 2023

Hammack (Eight Amazing Engineering Stories), a Carl Sagan Award--winning professor of engineering (Univ. of Illinois) and YouTube's "Engineer Guy," provides listeners with an educational and entertaining examination of the engineering method as it has evolved from ancient history to the present. The author offers an intriguing perspective on how it is human nature to engineer solutions when confronted with the world's many problems. Listeners will learn that the "golden rule of thumb" is essential to every historical innovation and invention, from planting crops to processing film to putting microwave ovens in nearly every kitchen. How did master stonemasons build cathedrals hundreds of years ago? How do skyscrapers not fall in the face of 100 mph winds? Why did a daily act such as dinner preparation go from a cooperative family effort to one that became unfairly considered a woman's task? Narrator Jonathan Todd Ross's conversational cadence strikes the right note, matching Hammack's tone and making this an enjoyable listen. VERDICT Hammack's appealing scientific history proves that common myths of how inventions came about are largely untrue. This glimpse into humankind's problem-solving methods is highly recommended for scientists and non-scientists alike.--Scott DiMarco

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