Which Tool Would You Use?

Posted by Nick Sieger Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:34:27 GMT

I started in on the twice-yearly task of pruning our hedges today. So confronted with this task:

Shearing the shrubs

Which tool would you use?

Which tool?

I used both today, but realized I enjoy using the hand trimmers much more. With the electric trimmers, you can buzz through a lot of hedge quickly, but sometimes this happens:

Too close

With the hand trimmers, I can take my time and make precise cuts. The end result may take more time, but it turns out much, much better.

Software tools have similar feels to me. Java feels an awful lot like the electric trimmers. It’s heavy and powerful, but sometimes by the time you’ve finished with it, you’ve cut so far in that you may have missed a simpler, lighter solution.

Ruby feels like the hand trimmers. Precision, less code, more intent, and I can take my time to think through and arrive at a solution without leaving a huge trail of trimmings (code) behind me.

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  1. Avatar Andy said 8 minutes later:

    From the title alone I figured this would be Netbeans vs. Textmate/Vim, was pretty close. :)

  2. Avatar Nick said about 1 hour later:

    No comment :)

  3. Avatar Jeff Binan said about 18 hours later:

    Classic

  4. Avatar Stancje said 3 days later:

    Well obviously I’d use the automatic one. Not because it’d get me better results but because it’s AWESOME! It’s almost like running around with a chainsaw!