Law 3: Time
Law 5: Differences
Knowledge makes everything simpler.
> Excerpted from Pages 33-34 of my book, The Laws of Simplicity
Operating a screw is deceptively simple. Just mate the grooves atop the screw’s head to the appropriate tip—slotted or Phillips—of a screwdriver. What happens next is not as simple, as you may have noted while observing a child or a woefully sheltered adult turning the screwdriver in the wrong direction.
My children remember this rule through a mnemonic taught by my spouse, “righty tighty, lefty loosy.” Personally I use the analogy of a clock, and map the clockwise motion of the hands to the positive penetration curve of the screw. Both methods are subject to a second layer of knowledge: knowing right versus left, or knowing what direction the hands of a clock turn. Thus operating a screw is not as simple as it appears. And it’s such an apparently simple object!
So while the screw is a simple design, you need to know which way to turn it. Knowledge makes everything simpler . This is true for any object, no matter how difficult. The problem with taking time to learn a task is that you often feel you are wasting time, a violation of the third Law of time. We are well aware of the dive-in-head-first approach—“I don’t need the instructions, let me just do it.” But in fact this method often takes longer than following the directions in the manual.
24 Responses to “Law 4: Learn”
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I never thought about how complicated the easy part of operating a screw is, I mean just the “which way to turn it” part. Next one must consider both the screw material and the material the screw is being driven into.
Being a cabinetmaker, one test I give my helpers is “how much torque can one put on a brass hinge screw without snapping it off?” It’s a sensitivity test. Factor in pilot hole requirements and lubrication? Once you get used to it you can tell…. usually.
Enter the power driver. Try to get someone to countersink a screw flush with a power driver and when they get it, switch materials on them. That’s my employee test - successful screw driving! Looks easy doesn’t it?
I realize that my learning to drive a screw using a regular electric drill (before power drivers were invented) and the goals I set for the results are the factors contributing to my own skill level.
Knowledge comes from experience, mostly painful experiences while looking for a better way. Go ahead, keep snapping off those brass screws and see how long it takes to fix them! When someone makes it look simple it’s a result of learning and practice - perhaps not in that order.
Setting the goals and taking the time to learn the best way to get there eventually leads to making it a simple task. And all we’re doing is figuring out how to use the simple inclined plain someone else incorporate into being able to hold things together.
I like your wife’s rule the best. With the advent of the digital clock her method will truly stand the test of time. Your advice on taking the time to learn though is the key, something most people are not willing to do.
(Oh, by the way - the slotted screw driver was the tool that caused the most injuries in our trade school.)
JS
I use the mnemonic that nearly all threads are “right-handed.” Point your right thumb in the direction you want the screw (or nut) to go, and turn in the direction your fingers curl. In the few oddball cases where the threads are left-handed (such as the left-hand pedal on a bicycle), substitute your left hand.
This is particularly handy in situations where you’re not looking directly at the fastener.
I’m so glad to get new perspectives on this seemingly simple task of turning a screw. Thanks Frank and Jeff!
CLockwise to CLose is the way my father taught me.
cOunterclockwise to Open.
When I first read this I thought there was ambiguity — I thought I could reverse it to say “Counterclockwise to Close” but I see your CAPS better now.
CLockwise to CLose.
Yep I can remember that. Thanks Laura.
I’ve been reading through the laws via your blog, so this comment really pertains to what is written about the fourth law there (and thanks, hey, for making it uncopiable !): “The only problem is, of course, that learning hard things ain’t easy. Making learning simple is thus a key goal to be realized.” I agree, if we mean ridding learning of unnecessary difficulty: some textbooks, lectures, instruction manuals, and even driving directions, etc., can be made more clear, which would in turn make learning the subject at hand easier. On the other hand, reading the law suggested a corallary to me: mustn’t one learn to tolerate difficulty, ambiguity, or complexity ? The expectation that learning can be made easy for us, no matter the level of difficulty of the subject, can only lead to frustration, and that seldom leads to learning. This is not a new idea, and I recall a few years ago using a book that suggested this (”The Art of the Long View” by Schwartz) in a junior level class I was teaching, a seminar on contemporary global politics founded on an examination of ideas of “the good life” in history. I recall my students’ positive reaction to this idea, as if a thought had been voiced that they had been struggling to articulate. We live in a culture of instant satisfactions, instand downloads and uploads, super-immediate gratification, and this makes learning “hard things” very tough. So I had written you an e-mail, asking about this potential corallary to your law, and wondering if the real task is not to make the complexity bearable and perhaps also to seek after and to demonstrate its elegance, in order to encourage the pursuit of learning hard things. And, oh, ps “right tighty…” does it for me !
I love what you refer to as RTFM I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had to give basic instructions when it’s in the user’s manual and the customer refuses to read them as one customer informed me why should I read the instructions I can just call Customer Service, and as a representative of the company I’am obligated to provide them with the instructions that was include with the handset equipment … so you said what many have wanted to say Read the F**king Manual
the RTFM sometimes do take longer than the DIHF. 1) when the user is not sufficiently configured to use a manual; 2) when the authors of the thing produce a misleading or confusing manual, thus failing to programme the user to reduce the learning time.
i still find the electrical appliances business one of the great sources of comedy, via the many times strange and surrealist worlds they assume the user to inhabit. not to mention *simply* bad translations of bad manuals.
at stumps,
jonas
I looked on the Web for DIHF but only found this. I don’t think that’s the correct acronym. “Do It Heavenly the First time”?
I have never thought of learning something as wasteful. I rather think of it as the investing of my time. The initial layout is great but, hopefully, the rewards will make up for the investment as well as give me more free time henceforth. If I invest money I no longer have the access to money. However, with the passing of TIME I will get more money, hopefully, as a reward for my risk. We know it doesn’t always turn out positive. But you have still learned. Thomas Edison: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” He learned. (Besides if I have more free time I’ll just find more things to learn.)
Waiting just trains us to be patient; in my opinion a lost art form.
It seems as we continue to experience life, we become more knowledgeable of our experiences. This makes every day that much simpler and that much shorter. Could simplicity exist without knowledge? If none is known, the simple are beyond comprehension. If all is known, then nothing is beyond comprehension.
The more we “learn” the less we see. Our learned and expected mindset excludes novel or unusual information so that we can arrange acquired data in our embedded paradigm.
The best example of this paradox comes at the very end of the movie Apocolypto (assuming you got through the whole thing) when the main character looks out over the sea and sees for the first time ever the spanish ships. A mind blower. Usually we unconciously suppress that which we cannot assimilate
Hi George, Certainly an argument for why new experiences are so exciting/tiring. The opportunity to learn is exhilerating … at the same time equal to “more work. John
Now I wonder… where does the learning process must stop?… As i can say, there’s a point where the more you learn the more complex things get eventhough they really are simpler… It is just an unstoppable chain…
I kind of rather do things on instinct… i find it simpler
Agreed. Recently I set up a set of Bully Case shelving from Ikea. The wooden shelves were simple enough, but hanging the glass doors was not. After many failed attempts, I resorted to the instructions. I love the shelves now that they are up.
Agreed already. regards.
My dad always said:
“Lazy people work twice as hard”.
The subtitle of this chapter has stuck with me for quite some time. However, I’ve now discovered a slight problem with it. It neglects the power of experience over knowledge. Indeed, knowledge makes things simpler, but experience usually makes them simple.
I would like within ?you
Shouldn’t this law be named “Teach” instead of “Learn”.
Or was the perspective changed with a reason?
This line hits me right in the face!
“The problem with taking time to learn a task is that you often feel you are wasting time, a violation of the third Law of time.”
Thanks for the reminder!
I appreciate reviewing organized thoughts, it helps me know more about what I think.
Sharing knowledge (by transparency) increases overall organizational ability to to cope with business challenges.
Inevitable must for doing so: gain time through rule 3
Increasing usable time is the leverage point to learn and applicate the increased knowledge = Lean Thinking = Design Thinking
Best regards,
Ralf
All too often, “learning” is living off of the experience of an expert, who might be repeating the rules: what can and cannot be done. Discovery often arrives because of an ignorance of what’s known, and an unintentional defiance of the ways things should be done.
It’s potentially helpful to have knowledge, but often useful to suspend it.
Finding a region where rules are in motion, not static.
Once a rule is uttered as true, its opposing truth arrives and wants to be heard.
Keep both in motion long enough, and maybe the real question gets answered.