To a man with a hammer…

One of my favourite quotes, and it’s used lots in this industry, runs as follows:

To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail

Mark Twain

We like a bit of good ‘ol Samuel Clemens (Twain was his pen name).  Anyway, it makes a lot of sense; if you only have one solution to any problem you’re confronted with, your perspective usually bends to make your solution work for it. 

Anyway, this came to mind when I saw this; Ed Sutt has created the ‘hurriquake nail’:

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Rather than increasing the speed of nail guns, or number of hammers, or increasing the workforce available to hammer them in, he’s gone straight for the simplest, most elegant solution; he made the nail better.  He developed a nail that’s lots more effective in withstanding hurricane or earthquakes.

The obvious solution would have been ‘more nails’.  The better solution is a better nail.

Read more about it here on PSFK

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