Web Performance Matters

If I had a hammer
I'd hammer in the morning
I'd hammer in the evening
All over this land
I'd hammer out danger
I'd hammer out a warning
I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land

--Pete Seeger and Lee Hays, 1949 [Wikipedia]

In May 2007, after I wrote about Controlling What You Can't Measure, I had a conversation with Ben Simo (see the comments) about metrics and tools, during which I wrote:

Hammers and chisels can be very dangerous, but carpenters use them every day, and we don't brand them as "bad tools" just because some people don't know how to use them properly. Human nature being what it is, there will always be some incompetent fools who try to use a hammer and chisel to drive in a screw or open a bottle of beer, just because they have those tools handy.

A few days later, while reading a series of articles on Performance Engineering written by Scott Barber, I noticed the following quotation:

All parts should go together without forcing. You must remember that the parts you are reassembling were disassembled by you. Therefore, if you can't get them together again, there must be a reason. By all means, do not use a hammer.

--IBM maintenance manual, 1925 [emphasis added]

This priceless piece of advice is quoted by Scott in part 9 of his 14-part series. At the time I made a note to write something about this, but after that it just sat in the "ideas for blog posts" folder for the next 3 months.

Until today, when I happened across the Ultimate Geeks Multi-Tool Hammer. Now, if I had this hammer, it turns out that I actually could use it to drive in a screw or open a bottle of beer, without being branded as an incompetent fool!

Tags: Scott Barber, Ben Simo, multi-tool, hammer, Performance Matters