Tools that disappear

A good tool, after a while, stops being something you think about. You think about the work, and the tool is simply how your hand reaches it.

I have a block plane like that. It is not expensive or rare. It fits my palm, the blade holds an edge, and the adjustment does not drift. I reach for it without looking.

Software can be like this too, though it rarely is. The text editor I have used for years has never once asked me to sign in, never shown me a tip of the day, and never changed where anything is. I cannot remember the last time I noticed it.

The tools that never disappear are the ones that want my attention: the notification, the redesign, the feature I did not ask for. Each one is a small tax on the thing I was actually trying to do.

When I choose tools now, I try to ask a single question: will I still be noticing this in a year? If the answer is yes, it is probably the wrong tool, however clever it looks today.