Ooh, interesting question, if you regularly use a screwdriver to lever something open because what you need is a strong piece of metal with a wedge at the end, is that the purpose of a screwdriver?
I was thinking "goodness, that MetMo is an expensive screwdriver; I'd lock it up in a drawer too", but on reflection I was making a category error: it is cheap therapy.
it is a lovely thing but it is a toy just like my espresso machine. I would guess that you could spot the houses of people who work in Britain's many and various niche professional services, by the presence of shiny gadgets they bought to cheer themselves up after doing some particularly boring or unethical work
For me the attraction of the slogan POSIWID (The purpose of a system is what it does) is an antidote to the standard way of thinking about a system or part of it, which is to ask what it is intended to do. POSIWID asks us to go about things more empirically and ask what it does.
This reminds me of James Burnham's claim that over 9/10ths of political discourse is just wish fulfillment. His critique is that it's not empirical. https://clubtroppo.com.au/2022/03/06/will-you-join-me-in-the-alt-centre/ That if we want to be empirical, as opposed to disconnected from reality, we need to start again and go about it all differently.
Beer is saying something similar about management.
It's why I put Lord Acton's joke at the centre of this piece.
Perhaps "the purpose of a system can be seen in what it does" avoids the cynical interpretation? In any case I think the notion of how the system reproduces itself is really important. I would say the purpose of a screwdriver in a drawer is still to drive screws because the reason why we keep making screwdrivers, i.e., the reason why screwdrivers are continually reproduced, is that for the most part we mostly use them for screw driving. You _can_ use screwdrivers for lots of other things, but if we stopped needing to drive screws, I think we'd stop making screwdrivers and use other things for those other purposes (like levering things open). Tip of the hat to Millikan:
The purpose of some screwdrivers is to screw around.
Ooh, interesting question, if you regularly use a screwdriver to lever something open because what you need is a strong piece of metal with a wedge at the end, is that the purpose of a screwdriver?
Definitely seems to be the purpose of your screwdriver, although not the purpose of a screwdriver owned by someone who also owns a pry bar
*: For a given value of interesting.
99 quid for a screwdriver does indeed serve some other purpose.
I was thinking "goodness, that MetMo is an expensive screwdriver; I'd lock it up in a drawer too", but on reflection I was making a category error: it is cheap therapy.
it is a lovely thing but it is a toy just like my espresso machine. I would guess that you could spot the houses of people who work in Britain's many and various niche professional services, by the presence of shiny gadgets they bought to cheer themselves up after doing some particularly boring or unethical work
I feel seen.
For me the attraction of the slogan POSIWID (The purpose of a system is what it does) is an antidote to the standard way of thinking about a system or part of it, which is to ask what it is intended to do. POSIWID asks us to go about things more empirically and ask what it does.
This reminds me of James Burnham's claim that over 9/10ths of political discourse is just wish fulfillment. His critique is that it's not empirical. https://clubtroppo.com.au/2022/03/06/will-you-join-me-in-the-alt-centre/ That if we want to be empirical, as opposed to disconnected from reality, we need to start again and go about it all differently.
Beer is saying something similar about management.
It's why I put Lord Acton's joke at the centre of this piece.
https://insidestory.org.au/orwell-that-ends-well/
His joke? That rowing is the perfect preparation for public life because it enables you to travel in one direction, while you face in the other.
I tell my friends at Raspberry pi that the purpose of their little computers is to be put in a drawer and forgotten, but they don't like it.
Perhaps "the purpose of a system can be seen in what it does" avoids the cynical interpretation? In any case I think the notion of how the system reproduces itself is really important. I would say the purpose of a screwdriver in a drawer is still to drive screws because the reason why we keep making screwdrivers, i.e., the reason why screwdrivers are continually reproduced, is that for the most part we mostly use them for screw driving. You _can_ use screwdrivers for lots of other things, but if we stopped needing to drive screws, I think we'd stop making screwdrivers and use other things for those other purposes (like levering things open). Tip of the hat to Millikan:
https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262631150/language-thought-and-other-biological-categories/