Guru Madhavan is the Norman R. Augustine Senior Scholar and senior director of programs at the National Academy of Engineering. He is a prizewinning author of essays and books, including Applied Minds: How Engineers Think. He lives in Washington, DC.
<p>AN ODE TO SYSTEMS ENGINEERS―WHOSE INVISIBLE WORK UNDERGIRDS OUR LIFE―AND AN EXPLORATION OF THE WICKED PROBLEMS THEY TACKLE</p><p>“Profound, readable, and, above all, humane—a substantively and stylishly engineered book”</p><p>TIM HARFORD, author of The Data Detective</p><p>“A wonderful and energizing book. ... It is an espresso machine for the imagination”.</p><p>RORY SUTHERLAND, author of Alchemy</p><p>“Wise, wide-ranging, and wonderful….”</p><p>DON NORMAN, author of The Design of Everyday Things</p><p>Our world is filled with pernicious problems. How, for example, did novice pilots learn to fly without taking to the air and risking their lives? How should cities process mountains of waste without polluting the environment? Challenges that tangle personal, public, and planetary aspects-often occurring in health care, infrastructure, business, and policy-are known as “wicked problems,” and they are not going away anytime soon.</p><p>In this book, Guru Madhavan illuminates how wicked problems have emerged throughout history and how best to address them in the future. He examines best-known tragedies and lesser-known tales, from the efficient design of battleships to a volcano eruption that curtailed global commerce, and how maintenance of our sanitation systems constitutes tikkun olam, or repair of our world. An homage to society's innovators and maintainers, Wicked Problems offers a refreshing vision for readers of all backgrounds to build a better future and demonstrates how engineering is a cultural choice-one that requires us to restlessly find ways to transform society, but perhaps more critically, to care for the creations that already exist.</p><p>Guru Madhavan says, ‘From the Indus Valley to Silicon Valley, we know the value of engineering. Yet we need a broad—and broad-minded—understanding of problems and failures that appear hopelessly wicked in our daily lives. We need prosocial forms of engineering that are rigorously reflective and more responsible to guide our way.”</p><p> </p>
