Chapter 37. Accidents in Other Industries
During an Alpine hike in 1948, Swiss mountaineer George de Mestral became frustrated by the burs that clung annoyingly to his pants and socks. While picking them off, he realized that it might be possible to produce a fastener based on the burs to compete with, if not obsolete, the zipper.—Charles Panati, Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things
As this quotation shows, new ideas often result when we transfer an idea from one field of knowledge to another. In the same way, we can learn from accidents in other industries. Their immediate technical causes are not always of interest, but the underlying causes can supplement and reinforce our own experience. Because we are not involved in the technical ...
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