Tom Sachs
1 HN recommender · recommended in 4 months, 2017–2024
1:28 · 231K views · Jun 21, 2011
A one-minute clip from Tom Sachs's Ten Bullets series on the rule "Always Be Knolling", which means constantly arranging and putting away unused objects.
Used as a short intro to knolling and as an analogy for tidying workspaces and continuously cleaning up code.
4 comments from Hacker News
this video is a good introduction to the idea, but basically, "clean up and organize, with things aligned with the table and each other". Side note, I also recommend the main "Ten Bullets" video by Tom Sachs (of which the link above is for bullet 8, "Always Be Knolling"); it feels a little over-zealous and pretentious at times, but there's something about it that makes me want to go back and watch it every couple years for inspiration...
> Because on Unix systems, the CLI commands are not archaic and you can move way faster than a GUI using them. I use the keyboard to operate the Windows GUI though and Windows is definitely known for having better accessibility hooks than any other system. I am confident that I can operate my GUIs faster than a CLI user for a broad range of tasks. It's certainly faster than looking up commands. > I'm comparing it to Mac. Well I use Macs too. I think the touchpad is extremely overrated since you have to take your hands off the keyboard to use it. I'd rather operate the entire system with my keyboard, something that Macs don't let you do as easily as Windows where knowing a few simple principles let you do everything. I have a Mac Pro besides my Macbook Pro and I'd have to buy a separate trackpad to operate that and where would I put it? That's annoying. Speaking of multiple monitors, I don't think even Sierra lets you soft-disable monitors yet. Windows has had this since forever. It's so annoying that I have to physically unplug my Mac from the monitor or else I can't use the monitors built-in KVM to share it with other computers because the Mac will still think the monitor is there and open windows on it. I won't buy a third party program for it either (for reasons). > It's a jumbled mess of colours and rectangles. No, it's not. Knolling [1,2] is a well known process for arranging objects and that's what the start screen/menu lets you do. (I use the full screen). It's way bet
This reminds me of the process of 'Knolling', popularized by artist Tom Sachs. By definition it is just the act of arranging objects, tools, materials etc into spaced, parallel or perpendicular alignment on a table. Tom calls this out as an organizational technique, summed up by 'Always be Knolling' [0] - constantly scan your environment for things that are not in use, and if they are not in use put them away. If you are not sure if you need them, group all like objects, and align them all to be square to each other and the workspace. It's not like being aligned makes tools and materials really that much better organized, but it's the act of doing this that gets things put away and keeps clutter down and workspaces efficiently utilized. It's similar in part to steps in the Toyota "5S" system. [1] [0] this video [1] [LINK]
I don't really agree with this take. Similar to knolling [0], refactoring the code you're working on and that around it should be a natural part of every development flow. If you see a design choice that no longer makes sense, restructure. If code is unused, remove. Etc, we have plenty of powerful tools at our disposal in modern times and always cleaning things up as you go is the only way you will ever keep a code base maintainable. There will never be some magical future where you have time to clean up and refactor those thorny bits, the time is now. Similar to gardening, if you're pruning roses and you see a weed taking root, just pull it out, it's right there. You won't get all the weeds this way and sure, it would be nice to have more time to deal with them, but surely it will help a little. [0] this video