Design
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Background: In ancient times, there was the “scroll,” which is basically a super inconvenient book where you can’t arbitrarily access information on a particular “page” without some laborious scrolling. Later, the “codex”—or “regular book”—was invented. It’s basically a stack of identically-shaped pieces of paper that are bound together on one side. So far, so good.…
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Background: When arranging furniture in a house, people generally tend to just put tall furniture (bookshelves, wardrobes, etc…) against a wall and just sort of hope that none of it falls over. Normally, this is a reasonable assumption, except during rare situations such as earthquakes or small children climbing up a bookshelf like a ladder.…
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Background: In today’s allegedly modern world, when people encounter technical problems with their computers, they usually either check for a solution on the Internet or instantly give up in frustration. What they DO NOT typically do is begin a magical ritual to placate the angry spirits! This is surprising, as, for, thousands of years, humans…
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Background: When disaster strikes, it’s useful to have a set of easily-accessible emergency supplies that can be brought by a person fleeing danger. This is the concept of a “go” bag: a backpack full of common supplies that a person might need if they had to temporarily abandon their home due to a natural disaster.…
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The Issue: Now that most job applications are posted online, it’s unbelievably difficult for a person to have their job application actually noticed (or read by a human being at all). Any legitimate-looking job posting for something like “graphic designer: intro level: salary: slightly above minimum wage” will probably get 1000+ applicants the first day…
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Background: People frequently leave notes around the house, either as reminders to themselves or as reminders to family members or roommates. For example: “Remember to push the fridge door shut, or it stays open!” or “Remember to lock the top lock when you leave the house!“ The Issue: These reminders are all fine and good,…
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Background: One traditional type of electric toaster is a rectangular enclosure with slots at the top for two slices of bread (Figure 1). Once the bread is sufficiently toasted, the slices of toast pop out of the toaster, visually making it obvious that the toast is ready. The Issue: Strangely, no other appliances operate in…
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Background: “Doomscrolling” refers to the act of relentlessly scrolling through negative news online, often to the psychological detriment of the person scrolling. It may be surprising that a person would intentionally ingest distressing news, but consider that doom-adjacent news is more emotionally engaging than “normal” news: imagine the hypothetical article “Interest rates were raised by…
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The Issue: Legal contracts are often verbose and uninteresting to read. It can also be very hard for a person to motivate themselves to read a contract and find all the parts where a signature is required. Certain online services have made this somewhat easier (they typically jump directly to the parts the require signatures,…
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Background: One classic cause of civilization-ending apocalypse in science fiction is AI-initiated nuclear war, as variously depicted in Wargames (1983), Terminator (1984), Battlestar Galactica (2003), and other media. The Issue: Generally, humans don’t fare well in a post-nuclear-apocalypse setting, and would like to avoid it when possible. Unfortunately, security around nuclear launches may be inadequate (Figure 1): it…
WorstPlans: updated every Monday since July 2014! 