Twenty five things I’ve learned in twenty five years

Here are some things I know about buildings, architecture, engineering, and construction after about a quarter century in the field.

1. There is an enormous gulf between design and construction; we speak different languages and work from vastly different baseline assumptions.
2. Most buildings have lots of things “wrong” with them; most of these defects don’t actually cause problems.
3. As an industry we produce approximately a hundred times as much documentation as we read.
4. The “right way” to do most things is known—we’re not developing new physics here—but few people take the time to do it “right”.
5. For better or worse, people in AEC learn on the job; college and “book learning” are most helpful as a filter to identify raw talent, intelligence, and grit.
6. Building envelope fundamentals are easy to understand and extraordinarily difficult to consistently execute.
7. People will readily grasp onto the irrational (but convenient) hope that something will work this time, despite irrefutable evidence that the same thing has failed multiple times before.
8. Confidence is convincing, even when unwarranted, and a lot of people are very confident in their ill-founded opinions.
9. Certainty and construction don’t go together; everything is best discussed in terms of risk and probability.
10. We mostly learn from painful failures, and even then we learn very slowly.
11. Imagination and emotion are a lot more powerful than track record.
12. Building inspectors have way too much on their plates; most people think inspectors are responsible for checking far more than they actually have time, resources, or knowledge to inspect.
13. We’re pretty good at building structures that don’t fall down, but beyond that we’re shockingly bad at consistently nailing basics like making buildings warm, dry, comfortable, and durable.
14. The tools don’t really matter. Many of the most impressive structures in human history were built (and have survived) without electricity, never mind AutoCAD, Revit, AI, AR/VR, drones, smartphones, tablet computers, ubiquitous internet, or digital photography.
15. Architecture in 2025 is much more about “design” as an art form than it is about creating a functional “machine for living”. This is neither good nor bad, but it’s important to be aware of.
16. Construction in 2025 is as reliant as ever on the knowledge, skill, dedication, mindset, and mood of the individual humans showing up on the job site each day.
17. It’s easier to get good results by doing simple at 9 out of 10, rather than aiming for complex and sophisticated but only executing at 5 out of 10.
18. Did I mention that no one reads anything?
19. “This is better but it costs more” loses every time—your audience hears “this is better but it’s also worse”… it doesn’t make sense. If what you mean is “this is better because it will cost less in the long run” then say that, and define “long run” so people can make informed decisions.
20. Nobody cares about the backstory; get to the punchline.
21. We’ve apparently perfected construction drawings; they haven’t changed in 25 years (or really ever).
22. Contracts are of questionable utility; when things go sideways everyone gets pulled in and people claim whatever they want to claim, regardless of what the contract says.
23. There are very few people on the planet who understand the difference between water vapor transport by airflow vs. by diffusion and how these relate to condensation risk. I like to think I’m one of them and I wrote a post about it to help spread the word (see also: #3 and #18).
24. Roofing is like tires: unglamorous, essential, and needs regular inspection and periodic replacement to avoid dangerous failures. Yet people often ignore both their tires and their roofs.
25. It is impossible to compare design and construction service proposals “apples to apples”. Procuring these services through a low bid process is a waste of time for all parties involved.

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