The sorting | Seth’s Weblog

Till you have a look at the system.

Kevin Wilson wrote an ideal quick story concerning the employees who need to type the tiles that go right into a Scrabble field. The hero is chargeable for looking by the pile for the letter ‘q’. All day. On fee.

At this absurd degree, it’s clear that the sport isn’t made this manner. They’d by no means produce all 26 letters, combine them up after which type them. It pays to be considerate concerning the manufacturing course of, so that you merely make what you want within the first place.

However now, significantly with digital output, we’re doing it backwards. Making a number of stuff after which sorting it later. There’s little or no price to creating extra, and it’s getting increasingly time-consuming to search out what we’re searching for.

We’re changing the magic of Google’s skill to type by the miscellaneous with a brand new system primarily based on merely making extra, on demand.

Belief and a focus stay the constructing blocks of manufacturers and tradition. We ignore this at our peril. There aren’t any good shortcuts.

January 17, 2026