Use the right tool for the right job.
Peter Chong
Hi,
Please comments, is there such a phrase as above? And what does it mean?
Thanks
T. Shannon Gilvary
On 30 Jun 1997 02:11:19 GMT, "Peter Chong" <yuk...@pop.jaring.my>
wrote:
>Hi,
>
>Please comments, is there such a phrase as above? And what does it mean?
>
>Thanks
>
I've heard "Use the right tool for the job" not necessarily the "right
job". It's pretty literal. Whatever your trying to do will go much
more smoothly, easily, safely etc. if you use the tool that was
designed to do it.
Shannon
Albert Marshall
Peter Chong <yuk...@pop.jaring.my> wrote
>Hi,
>
>Please comments, is there such a phrase as above? And what does it mean?
>
toe-nails with a lawn mower".
--
Albert Marshall
Executive French
Language Training for Businesses in Kent
01634 400902
Joseph C Fineman
The traditional phrase is "use the right tool for the job", and it is
used both literally and figuratively.
The extra "right" that you quote is fairly common, and there might be
some point to it in special situations, but IMO it is mostly foolish.
Some people are so in love with being emphatic that they can't be
bothered to pay attention to what they're emphasizing. So also, they
say "hit the right nail on the head" instead of "hit the nail on the
head", and "both of them were talking with each other" (as if one
person could talk with each other).
However, it is very old foolishness. Fowler, in _MEU_ s.v. nail, says
that "hit the right nail" took over about 1700. See also _MEU_ s.v.
false emphasis.
--- Joe Fineman j...@world.std.com
||: Those who will not do arithmetic are condemned to talk :||
||: nonsense. :||
Don Fearn
On Mon, 30 Jun 1997 13:13:57 -0600, Truly Donovan <tr...@lunemere.com>
wrote:
>Peter Chong wrote:
>
>> Please comments, is there such a phrase as above? And what does it mean?
>
>The phrase is actually "use the right tool for the job" and it means
>simply that the results will be more satisfactory if you use an
>appropriate tool.
>
>The corollary phrase is "when the only thing you have is a hammer,
>everything is a nail."
Don't you mean, "when the only thing you have is a hammer, everything
_looks_like_ a nail"? That would leave the poor hammer holder stuck
trying to use his hammer at inappropriate times and it would fit the
subject (minus the second "right", of course).
-Don (following IBMTEXT and missing Truly's presence there) Fearn
Pamela S Maru
You mean like "The blind man picked up his hammer and saw"?
hehehe
--
"Let your inspirations inspire others..."
::Pamela S. Maru::
: Don't you mean, "when the only thing you have is a hammer, everything
John Davies
In article <iFHUuKAD...@execfrog.demon.co.uk>, Albert Marshall
<alb...@execfrog.demon.co.uk> writes
>Don Fearn <poo...@ibm.net> wrote
>>Don't you mean, "when the only thing you have is a hammer, everything
>>_looks_like_ a nail"? That would leave the poor hammer holder stuck
>>trying to use his hammer at inappropriate times and it would fit the
>>subject (minus the second "right", of course).
>>
>Irishman's screwdriver".
In Coventry (UK West Midlands), a city that used to and possibly still
does take great pride in the engineering skills of its work-force, a
hammer was in my youth called a 'Brummagem screwdriver"--a reference to
Birmingham, 20 miles down the road, that at one time was notorious for
the cheap and shoddy artefacts it produced.
This is a further example of that interesting phenomenon in which the
same joke surfaces in different parts of the world with only the
identity of the protagonists changed. So British jokes about Irishmen
become Dublin jokes about Mayomen and American jokes about Poles, and so
on.
--
John Davies (jo...@redwoods.demon.co.uk)
On that of which one cannot speak, one must remain silent. (Wittgenstein)
Lee Rudolph
Truly Donovan <tr...@lunemere.com> writes:
>Well, no, that's not what I meant. What I meant was "when the only thing
>you have is a hammer, everything is a nail." The effect, the
>inappropriate use of the tool, is the same, but your version suggests
>that the error of one's ways will be detected at some point and perhaps
>even potentially corrected. Doesn't happen.
When the only thing you have is a rubber hammer, everything is a knee.
>It's like those Script users who only know how to use ".fo off" -- when
>you scream in pain, their response is "but it works."
When the only thing you have is WordStar 5.5, that dot command prints
"off" as a footnote on every page. (Actually, I recently upgraded
to WordStar 7.0, but I've been afraid to use anything so newfangled.)
Lee Rudolph
Brian J Goggin
On Wed, 2 Jul 1997 21:20:19 +0100, Albert Marshall
<alb...@execfrog.demon.co.uk> wrote:
[...]
>Pace Brian and Padraigh, in my youth a hammer was referred to as "an
>Irishman's screwdriver".
A tribute, no doubt, to our role in constructing modern Britain, from
the Industrial Revolution onwards.
bjg
John Nurick
On Fri, 04 Jul 1997 19:26:11 GMT, b...@wordwrights.ie (Brian J Goggin)
wrote:
>A tribute, no doubt, to our role in constructing modern Britain, from
>the Industrial Revolution onwards.
So, my friend! At last you admit responsibility!
John
I dislocated my e-mail address, and the doctor says it will be
six months before I can see a specialist.
Brian J Goggin
On Sun, 06 Jul 1997 10:18:47 GMT, j.nu...@ialday.ipexpay.omcay (John
Nurick) wrote:
>On Fri, 04 Jul 1997 19:26:11 GMT, b...@wordwrights.ie (Brian J Goggin)
>wrote:
>
>>A tribute, no doubt, to our role in constructing modern Britain, from
>>the Industrial Revolution onwards.
>
>So, my friend! At last you admit responsibility!
We built the good bits: canals, railways, motorways, housing .... But
we weren't responsible for maintenance.
bjg
PS all of that was, of course, after our civilising mission in the
middle of the last millenium.
Tushar Samant
Truly Donovan <tr...@lunemere.com> wrote:
>Peter Chong wrote:
>
>> Please comments, is there such a phrase as above? And what does it mean?
>
>The phrase is actually "use the right tool for the job" and it means
>simply that the results will be more satisfactory if you use an
>appropriate tool.
>
>everything is a nail."
"Corollary" has a pretty precise meaning and this ain't it.
O.Det
Truly Donovan wrote:
>
> Don Fearn wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 30 Jun 1997 13:13:57 -0600, Truly Donovan <tr...@lunemere.com>
> > wrote:
>
> > >everything is a nail."
> >
> > _looks_like_ a nail"? That would leave the poor hammer holder stuck
> > trying to use his hammer at inappropriate times and it would fit the
> > subject (minus the second "right", of course).
>
> you have is a hammer, everything is a nail." The effect, the
> inappropriate use of the tool, is the same, but your version suggests
> that the error of one's ways will be detected at some point and perhaps
> even potentially corrected. Doesn't happen.
>
> you scream in pain, their response is "but it works."
>
> Truly Donovan
FWIW, I heard the quote as "to a carpenter, all the world's a nail".
I work with a number of hardware and software engineers, and many
variations of this are bandied about on a near-daily basis. Some
of the more specific ones can be rather funny, to those "on the
inside"...
Also, btw, Scott Adams had a great Dilbert strip about this, which I
will attempt to describe. (The quotes aren't exact, but the idea
is the same.)
Caption: YOU ALWAYS USE THE SYSTEM YOU KNOW THE BEST
Scene: around a conference table.
Accounting guy: "We need to use the root-mean squared over the
standard deviation."
Programmer: "We should do a bi-polar search-tree, taking advantage
of the AVL latencies."
Admin: "Gather all their paperwork and file it alphebetically by
reverse zip-cod"
A Porcupine: "Stick them with quills, I tell you! It's the only way!"
Often, around here, when a particularly absurd form of "all the world's
a nail" becomes apparant, some of us will use verbal shorthand and offer
as commentary on the situation just "stick them with quills", meaning
"he's stuck in 'carpenter mode'"...
Truly Donovan
Rainer Thonnes wrote:
> In article <5pomfl$4...@shoga.wwa.com>,
means
> > >simply that the results will be more satisfactory if you use an
> > >appropriate tool.
> > >everything is a nail."
> better than to mince words with the queen of aue.
> We whippersnappers all learn our place, given time. There's only a
> few grand old men who dare to hold a candle to HER, and even then
> only with limited success.
I've been forced to the conclusion that "Tushar Samant" is someone's
hired hit man, and deal with the posts accordingly. They never fail to
meet expectations.
--
Truly Donovan
reply to truly at lunemere dot com