Saturday, January 31, 2015

Is Studying Required Subjects Truly Important?

In this world, we are all taught that learning math is very important. But how is it different from learning to sew?

In a mandatory math class, an aspiring tailor asks, "Why am I learning math? I want to be a tailor when I grow up." The accepted consensus is that sewing incurs expenses, making math an indispensable tool.

Now, let's imagine an alternate world in which learning to sew is required in the school system. In a mandatory sewing class, an aspiring mathematician asks, "Why am I learning to sew? I want to be a mathematician when I grow up." The accepted consensus is that sewing together parallel and perpendicular strings builds an intuition in geometry.

In each world, students learn a skill not because they have an interest in it, but because the skill will help them in other subjects.

So is studying the skill really important? No.

Is studying anything important? Yes. But only in the sense that we study it based on our interests.

Saturday, January 24, 2015

An Ergonomic Phone

So far, most mainstream phone designs focus on beauty. But when a person uses a phone, he doesn't care about what his phone looks like, because he is looking at the display. He cares about the way the phone feels in the hand. This is why a phone that focused on ergonomics would be ideal. For an example, let's see how the iPhone 6's design could be changed to feel better in the hand.

Lose the aluminum. After Steve Jobs died, the designers at Apple started to make aluminum phones. But the iPhone 6 is slippery because of the aluminum. I prefer the design of the iPhone 4. The stainless steel sides gave it a premium feel, while the glass back made the phone shiny but at the same time gave it traction. But because glass can be shattered easily, let's change the glass into Kevlar. The Kevlar would give the phone a good grip and a premium feel, but wouldn't feel cold.
Glass front, steel sides, Kevlar back.

Round out the back. When the user holds the iPhone 6, he doesn't actually hold the phone. He holds the sides of the phone. Because a hand's relaxed position is curved, a flat phone back just doesn't make sense. The Moto line of smartphones have a curved back. Sure, they wobble on a table, but they fit better in the hand, making the phones more comfortable to use.
Round back.

Lose the aluminum and round out the back, because a phone is not something to look at and appreciate. It's a utility.