The Joy of Everyday Things
June 17, 2005
Jeff Tucker’s article on cell phones today is the latest in what is becoming a wonderful collection of articles about everyday things, suffused with Jeff’s liberty-loving and joyful approach to life. In addition to articles on technology, he writes on shoes, umbrellas, Halloween candy and much else. Here are the others that I know of:
- How To Dress Like A Man (and addendum)
- The Economics of Happy Feet
- Tucker’s 12-Hour Flu Cure
- Take My Money, Please
- They’re Not Called Turkeys For Nothing
- Three Cheers for ‘Petty’ Concerns
- Lounge Lizards, Weak Wastrels, & Forgetters
- The Work of Human Hands
- The Key to a Happy Life
- Down With Human Suffering
- The Spam Problem: Solved
- The Turn of the Screw
- The Umbrella: A New Era
- The Candy Economy
- The Quiet RSS Revolution
- How To Fix Your Computer
- It’s a Jetsons World
Note: My title here, “The Joy of Everyday Things” is a play on the title of a classic book The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman. If you like Jeff’s articles you may very well enjoy Norman’s description of both well and poorly designed door handles, car radio controls, stove tops and other ordinary things. I have used the book to teach basic design principles to software programmers, but it is for anyone who likes to think about how things are made and is a delightful read.
Cell Phone Addiction