Sunday, October 12, 2008

Obviously,

Q: What really interests you?

A: The Obvious.

Q: Really?

A: Obviously.

Q: What do you mean?

A: Things that are so obvious that they come to mind immediately.

Example: Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) wondered why cord-wood was not sold by weight, rather than by the cubic volume. By thinking of the wood's weight as significantly contributing to its transportable labor-cost, he was simply making the labor-energy cost-chain obvious & continuous.

To extend that, the convertible value of the firewood resides in the potential heat that it can produce, measured in BTUs (British Thermal Units) or joules, not in wood-feet. Pricing wood by the potential BTU/joule is beyond woodcutters, but thanks to computers, it’s not beyond major gardening chain-stores, who could easily sell varieties of wood specifically priced by their potential BTUs. So why don’t they – do the obvious? Because the traditional system works well enuf - for simple, undifferentiated firewood.

Examples: All user-interfaces.

No comments: