Conversation

Veblen-doer hierarchy Science is savagery. “Hmm what happens if I eat the apple like the nice snake says?” Engineering is barbarism: “How do I solve this problem with minimal refinement?” Design is civilization: “How can I express Brooklyn aesthetics with maximal refinement?”
Something I did not recognize fully then: refinement is not the same as precision. Precision is a function of necessity. The clock simply won’t run if the gears aren’t aligned precisely enough. Refinement is precision beyond functional necessity, driven by aesthetic necessity.
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