Review of Charles H. Thornton: A Life of Elegant Solutions by Charles H. Thornton with Amy Blades Steward

Unlike other professionals, the role of the engineer in contemporary society has been more of a pacesetter for changes. A traditional view of the role of the engineer has been that of a skilled individual to whom decision makers can refer at levels of tactical moves all the way to the level of laying strategic plans. Yet, even in today’s society, it is not often that the engineer comes to mind when one thinks of managers or entrepreneurs. This book is the testimony of an engineer who applied his quantitative skills to address the sociocultural challenges of our times, and who set his mantra as “passion, persistence, and flexibility.” Characteristic is the fact that the title of this autobiography refers to a life of elegant solutions, a term that is used by the French school when it comes to the most efficient and pleasing to contemplate method to solve a complex mathematical problem. More than that, an elegant solution is meant to be one that can be appreciated as a performing art as opposed to a procedure that takes the user from point A to point B and satisfies the anticipated minimum requirements. Thornton’s aim comes through clearly at the beginning that his book is not about applied engineering methods. It is about how life experiences and opportunities that are encountered on a daily basis lead to an entrepreneurial mind-set and out-of-the-box thinking, challenging quotidian practices, developing a vision, building towers like the Petronas, and developing systems that even a decade later can still be a challenge to the average practitioner.

There are three parts in the book, titled “Origins,” “Elegant Solutions,” and “Renaissance/Disruptive Innovation.” In the first part of the book, the author refers to his formative years and all the factors that influenced him, growing up in difficult areas of New York, joining the Boy Scouts, and being in a family that valued education, yet having exposure to a hands-on labor style practice and developing a good understanding of the materiality of the built environment. The practical experiences combined with the opportunity to work with others and the education led to a lifelong habit of learning and applying that is revealed to the reader, sometimes to a level of detail where the reader may question the relevance to the main subject until the ending chapters where it all ties together. Throughout the book, the reader observes a pattern of developing values and standards to follow in practice and in human relations. He valued creativity and marketing, developing relations with clients where professional life extends beyond the standard networking to social ties and events such as his passion for sailing and coastal living, constantly seeking innovation in the design work and also the design of a lifestyle. Reflective of the attitude toward preparing for all possibilities is the phrase he uses: “go down in victory approach.” Quoting the author, “Our team would always propose three schemes for every project: the wild crazy scheme, the small step forward for mankind scheme, and the plain-vanilla scheme” contemplating how the architects would push for the first one and usually there would be a compromise between the first and second whereas most engineers spend their careers doing the third option.

The portion that in principle ties this work together is the last chapter of the second part of the book where the author presents his systematic approach to a successful enterprise through a well-documented scenario of 15 steps. It is also a prologue to the third part of the book. The third part is a reflection; an assessment of everything, a brief study of how things fell into place and how past experience became a guide for the future. It is reminiscent of the 2005 Stanford commencement speech by Steve Jobs of Apple in which he stated that it is impossible to connect the dots of your life looking forward and you can only connect them looking backward. In retrospect, the author uses these 15 steps as a guide, thus inverting the process for a path he traveled and laying it out for readers to follow as he already implements it for his future from this point onward.

Looking at the book cover, with the photograph of young prospective engineers, aspiring in their careers, and with the skeletal forms of the Petronas towers embracing them in a visual composition, the reader anticipates that the content of the book would be on the technical work of a series of projects, how structural details were resolved, or, in general, a description on how a successful engineering firm developed strategies to address technical design problems and then resolve them. This book is not focused on anything technical—although attention to detail and the accuracy of calculations are hailed as critical aspects of a successful practice helping develop good communication with associates as well as with clients. It is not written for the engineer who feels comfortable doing calculations and resolving mundane issues according to standard practice and codes by the end of the day. It is an inspiring composition of a brain that is never at ease, thirsts for adventure, develops trustworthy business relations, takes risks, constantly learns, develops, and challenges the quotidian practices and commonplace results, pushing the engineer for what is defined as elegant solutions. The author focused this work on the role of the new generation of engineering that jumps from the level of technician to that of the entrepreneur, aiming to make the leap from simple problem solver to a visionary who will raise the standard of a problem before solving it.