Zero Anticipation
I've been thinking a lot about simplicity of late. As I said in a previous blog I like simple. I also like simple explanations - that said very rarely can I explain something simply. Quite simply I've been seeking to describe my problem with the complexity of technology, and (more fundamentally) the complexity required in order to interact with that technology in a simple manner.
No matter how I tried I couldn't see a simple answer - hell I couldn't even formulate the question. Then I hit upon a different approach. Rather than contemplate the specifics of emerging technology, I would contemplate a mature technology, then try to infer what made it successful (and also what made it a bitch). Of course I couldn't think of a piece of mature tech that was simple enough for my needs. Then one day was putting away my tools after doing my best to botch something up, and I realised I was looking at the oldest and simplest piece of technology in my house.
I've got it here in front of me. With a modern equivalent. Both virtual identical. The differences have more to do with advances in material science - plastic replacing wood, higher quality metal. Surprising when you consider one was made almost 100 years before the other. And what is this mysterious piece of technology? A screwdriver, a simple flat-head woodworking screwdriver which I inherited from my Grandfather. Equally as good as the more recent one I got from Stanley.
I happily lost myself thinking not just of screwdrivers, but also of screws, and of how the simple flat-head has been joined by the Phillips, Pozi, Torx, and a whole host of drivers. Of how it's the elasticity of metal screws and friction which hold up shelves. Of benefits and annoyances of various types of screw. My major annoyance being my unerring ability to strip Phillips head screws lead me to research this matter. Which eventually lead to the discovery that this annoyance was actually a feature to prevent over tightening, and that taking them out was never a requirement.
Then, before I could reach a definite conclusion, somebody over on VagueWare posted a quotation from a book by William Gibson which handed me the answer. I didn't see it at first - I simply saw something that was very much what VagueWare is about. But having just finished rereading the Sprawl Trilogy I was in the mood for expanding my Gibson collection, so I investigated. When I discovered the the full quotation it couldn't be clearer that here was my answer. It was simple too. One word in fact:
Anticipation.
But then, I already knew that. I just didn't know I knew. I suppose I should have anticipated that.