I probably didn’t coin the term, but it’s new to me. Micheal Behe, in his book “Darwin’s Black Box” used the term “irreducible complexity”. An important book and term; I highly recommend it.
Most of the time, my best solutions are the simplest ones. It can take try after retry to reduce an idea down to its essentials. It’s also good mental exercise. Yesterday, I once again needed a tool to help draw a border around a sign, using a pencil. I have one that’s broken, so I decided to make a better one.
My nearly final idea was what’s shown in the sketch below. It would use two flat carpenter’s pencils, so that the one drawing the line would stay on its edge, not fall to its broadside. The problem with this design was that I didn’t leave a wide enough lip . So I thought about it more, using only the same wood, leather strap, and flat pencil.
I realized that the strap could be tied around the wood, as an immovable guide for the pencil; and that I could change the edge shape of the pencil, so that it could be held in a staedy way. So that’s what works. I hold the pencil against the strap, and draw a line around the sign. Once again, the free pair of metal shears I was given shows it’s practicality by doing a nice job of cutting the leather strap.
The first picture is the Eastern Red Cedar piece after sanding, but before shellac. The second picture is after shellac. The third picture shows the strap in position, and the flattened place on the edge of the pencil. The last picture shows the line I drew with the tool.
