When the less-obvious solution is best

When the less-obvious solution is best

Sometimes more really isn’t the answer.

Case and point – dishes at your house.  I saw this picture and college days of yore flooded back:

At one bachelor flat I lived at – our sink often looked like this.  We had 4 guys living in one house, and dishes weren’t a high-priority item.  So, they tended to pile up and then nobody seemed to remember who dirtied what and an endless cycle of blame and avoidance resulted.

The solution: throw out all the extra dishes.  Instead, there was *exactly 1* set of silverware, plate, and glass for each person.  Further, each one was color-coded.  Red plate/cup/silverware was Bob’s.  Green was Fred’s, etc.  That meant if you wanted to eat something, then you had to have washed your stuff to do so.  It also meant if you left your dirty dishes around – the culprit was immediately identifiable.  The first benefit was that with only 4 plates in the house, a ‘pile’ of them never got very big.  The second was that very quickly the innocents were vindicated, and slobs were identified. (We still had a full set of ‘nice’ dishes for when people came over for a dinner – but they were in a separate cupboard.  Anyone seen using those individually would be berated furiously).   The system worked like a charm and there was nary an argument about dishes for the rest of the time I lived there.

I think this is a corollary to many a home-owner’s observation that your possessions naturally expand to fit the space you have.   Or maybe Apple’s design philosophy that sometimes its the limitations you put on the usage of the device that actually allow easier and higher functionality.

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