{"id":1904,"date":"2012-01-16T16:02:24","date_gmt":"2012-01-16T20:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paleotechnologist.net\/?p=1904"},"modified":"2012-05-09T16:01:05","modified_gmt":"2012-05-09T20:01:05","slug":"made-by-monkeys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paleotechnologist.net\/?p=1904","title":{"rendered":"Made by Monkeys"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes, humor can be an effective way of making a point about bad design choices. Products which fail — often spectacularly — due to poor design can still lead to better engineering practices, if they inspire a discussion about what went wrong and how to fix it.<\/p>\n

Design News’ “Made by Monkeys<\/a>” column is a good read, and is often informative. It’s a good exercise in engineering ethics to read through the articles and conclude what made each particular design “Made by Monkeys.” Often, cost is the driving factor: a few cents saved by cutting corners here and there doesn’t keep the design from working immediately, but causes problems down the road.<\/p>\n

Here are a few especially good articles that I’ve come across:<\/p>\n