Saturday, October 30, 2010

Beautiful Tools


An example of a beautiful solution. A hammer is simple yet can be used in a variety of situations (sometimes too many). It doesn't take a manual to understand how to use it. It is beautiful because of its simplicity. There's not much you can do to make it more effective. (Sure there are special hammers optimized for specific purposes, but that is a different kind of beauty).

Probably every toolbox in the world has a hammer and if you don't, you've probably tried using other things in place of a hammer (your fist, a wrench, a rock) and found that they don't quite live up to the usefulness of the hammer.

Just like Quality can be defined as fitness for use, Beauty (of a solution) is fitness for use. A hammer fits it's purpose. Nothing more, nothing less.

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