I Wish More of Our Tools Looked Like Hammers

I grilled out tonight. I spatchcocked a chicken and it turned out pretty nice: juicy meat and crispy skin. It’s hard to beat the flavors you get from a charcoal grill. All the tools I used for preparation had handles. You know, for your hands: a shears for cutting out the backbone, a spatula, a tongs, a knife.

A handle is necessary for doing physical work, for manipulating objects and exerting force. Information and digital representations don’t really respond to force, so I guess that’s why phones and tablets and laptops are designed for our pockets and desks and backpacks.

I miss hammers sometimes. What would it take to make more of our problems look like nails, so we could use hammers more often?