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Screwdriver Narrowness Considered Harmful
Merlin Also | Oct 26 2005
Something I actually think about a lot just popped out in an email to an internet acquaintance who makes Mac software Quote: One thing to know about me (and probably a surprisingly large number of your customers and potential customers): there's very little mutual exclusivity in my software world. For example, I use TextEdit, Vim, and TextMate pretty much every day and for completely different things. To me it's like having several screwdrivers. I could be that guy who insists there's only One True and Good Screwdriver, but I prefer to keep them all handy and just grab the one I need for the job. Does that make any sense? I mean I hear these territorial pissing matches on `foo tool` vs. `bar tool`, and how the fate of the world turns on making the right decision one time, and then becoming some kind of viral evangelist. Meh. There's stuff like Quicksilver and OS X in general where you inherently have to choose a platform. But what about text editors, graphics apps--jeez, even _notebooks_? Am I the only one who employs a stable of several different tools for a certain kind of task? Esp. where one is clearly better at one portion of the task than the others? How about you? 23 Comments
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 From a cognitive science perspective: How...Submitted by nickg on October 28, 2005 - 7:14am.
From a cognitive science perspective: How can we know if our ?great toolset solution? isn?t just a local maximum within 'the solution space of our problem'? How can we ever know when we reach a global maximum for a solution to a 'wicked problem'? Global Maximum: The largest overall value of a set, function, etc., over its entire range. It is impossible to construct an algorithm that will find a global maximum for an arbitrary function. Eric W. Weisstein. ?Global Maximum.? From MathWorld?A Wolfram Web Resource. definition of wicked problem available a wikipedia.. cognitive science or 'the search for friendly AI' ;-) is a wicked problem.. life itself is a wicked problem .. we all have the same goal: be content, be happy, have fun ... but obtaining that goal is a personal quest that can (and should be) lifelong IMHO. final random quote: Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought. » POSTED IN:
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