While trying to figure out who the heck Barry LePatner is (the guy quoted at the top of this page) I stumbled across this gem:
“Sometimes when you connect the dots you get a picture. Other times you just have a bunch of dots.”
Obviously tonight I’m in the “bunch of dots” category, but I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine whether those dots are drawn with crayon or finger paint. And for anyone wondering, Barry LePatner apparently is the author of The Role of Failure in Successful Design.
To assist you in figuring out who Barry LePatner is let me refer you to http://www.lepatner.com He is a nationally recognized head of a NYC construction law firm, the author of several books one of which on structural failures led to his testimony before the US Congress where he used the quote you cite to discuss the fact that some courts had put a confidentiality seal on legal cases which prevented architects and engineers from learning about the building failures of others.
Thanks — the quote seems like something Mark Twain would say, so I was surprised it came from an engineer. Makes complete sense, though, especially given my own history of bad judgments.