The Things We Make

The Unknown History of Invention from Cathedrals to Soda Cans

By: Bill Hammack

Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross

Discover the secret method used to build the world . . .

For millennia, humans have used one simple method to solve problems. Whether it's planting crops, building skyscrapers, developing photographs, or designing the first microchip, all creators follow the same steps to engineer progress. But this powerful method, the "engineering method", is an all but hidden process that few of us have heard of—let alone understand—but that influences every aspect of our lives.

Bill Hammack, a Carl Sagan Award-winning professor of engineering and viral "The Engineer Guy" on YouTube, has a lifelong passion for the things we make, and how we make them. Now, for the first time, he reveals the invisible method behind every invention and takes us on a whirlwind tour of how humans built the world we know today. From the grand stone arches of medieval cathedrals to the mundane modern soda can, Hammack explains the golden rule of thumb that underlies every new building technique, every technological advancement, and every creative solution that leads us one step closer to a better, more functional world. Spanning centuries and cultures, Hammack offers a fascinating perspective on how humans engineer solutions in a world full of problems.

©2023 Bill Hammack (P)2023 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Lots of good information, and lots of really wierd virtue signaling

There's a lot of good information in this book there's also a lot of weird modern verbiage ascribed to 100 years ago, like where the author describes that a female bicycle designer of the early 1900s first starting out by trying to find out the differences between "CIS gendered men and women", which I'd literally bet my life that she absolutely didn't do, because that term wasn't even around back then. It's a really strange thing to need to so show your virtues that you're willing to insert them into the mouth of someone from 100 years ago as if they're quotes, it's also distracting and factually inaccurate.

Very interesting book about the engineering method

I really enjoyed how it portrayed the difference between scientists and engineers and their approaches to learning.

Great topic, ok execution

It’s amazing how little has been written about what engineering really is. Hammack enthusiastically explores this topic, and summarizes the answer as (paraphrasing): building solutions using heuristics, given uncertain knowledge of the underlying science, with constraints. Unfortunately, he uses excessively detailed stories to only partially illustrate these points in his definition. Further, he barely touches upon the classes of strategies (types of heuristics), management side of engineering, and all the other things that would really explain to a student how to become a better engineer, or give a layperson ideas on how to apply these ways of thinking to their own life.

A clear and valuable story

Liked the point of the book but was turned off by occasionaly unnessary pc exåressions

Excellent job

The author does an amazing job of describing how engineering differs from science and impresses on us the creative nature of the engineering process