Adventures with tinkering
So a few days ago, my almost newly bought floaters lost a buckle. Everyone said, buy a new pair. I said, whatever happened to some good ol’ tinkering?
To up the stakes a bit, I kept no back-up. If I couldn’t find a solution, I would have to limp my way to work with clinched toes to hold the damn thing in place. Fun fact — straps are immensely important in footwear. I know that from experience now.
Let’s bring some processes in the mix, shall we? What’s the point of professional experience without that.
First things first, I created a definition of what a good solution would be —
- It should hold the strap in place robustly over a considerable period of time. In other words, it shouldn’t have any day to day maintenance.
- It shouldn’t be outlandish. For example, an elaborate mechanism that works great but has a prominent visual presence disqualifies. The solution should look and behave like a normal buckle.
- Should be built with either free stuff or stuff I have lying around.
Okay, next up is a precise exit strategy for this madness — when do I say I NEED to buy new floaters? Well, I gave that responsibility to my roommate. My stopping would be triggered by him hitting his limit of tolerance (or “LT” if you want to sound fancy).
How I navigated the solution maze of this rather silly problem actually ended up being a great exercise in problem solving and modelling. So, without further ado, let’s dive right in!
Humble beginnings
I started with the office stationery station for some inspiration. Two solutions emerged. The most obvious one was to just tape it up! Run a tape across the strap onto the other side and you’re good to go. No rewards for guessing though that this is a horrible solution with high maintenance and low robustness. Scrap it!
Next one was actually better. I took a paper clip and repurposed it as in the picture.
I took this and put it through my buckle loop. Neat!
I was reasonably proud of this solution and carried it around for a while. It felt seamless until I was walking alongside my colleagues and the paperclip decided to deform. Should have guessed that, right? The solution violated the condition one. Well, my give-up-time just got constrained my some more limits of tolerance and my toes were beginning to get sore from all the clinching.
Epiphanies and the ultimate enlightenment
It was when the weekend hit that the creative juices really started to flow. In my head, a very rough “structure” of the object I was looking for started to emerge.
Side note — I am fascinated my head could do that. I didn’t have an object in mind, just a rough definition of it.
The object I was looking for needed two properties —
- It needed to have a way of going into the buckle loop. The reason the paper clip worked was because it went into the loop quite easily.
- It needed to have a loop like structure so that it could let the strap pass through it.
With this definition in mind, I went around the house scouring through drawers, lost and forgotten jars, kitchen equipments, whatnot.
The first solution was rather rough and I lost some serious tolerance points with my roommate for that. Here it goes anyway.
Lock fits the definition and it let the strap pass through. Unfortunately, it breaks condition two big time. Has a shot at becoming the next viral fashion trend I think but I don’t really want to pioneer that. Too many work items already.
Many hours passed by, no solution appeared that satisfied all conditions. It was time to go back to the whiteboard. I looked hard and close at the floater again. Maybe there was a something I was missing. Did I really need a way for the object to go into the buckle loop?
That’s when the epiphany hit. Can’t believe I am saying this, but here is the floater again for you, dear reader, to really observe.
You see that tiny little space below the actual loop? That’s almost like Master Shifu showing you the path. If you have a rubber band like thing that can go around that space and create a loop for the strap, we are set. All we need a robust rubber-band like thing and something to create a loop.
I borrowed a band from one of my colleagues and pulled the buckle out from an old watch and got the following.
Pretty good, right? I certainly thought so. I used it for an outing, walked up and down with heightened excitement. It was pretty good! Only problem was, that buckle holder thing was a pain. Removing the floater was a real effort since it created friction and I needed to hold it out.
Now is when real enlightenment hit. Why do I need the watch buckle at all? The rubber band was a loop in itself!
Behold the final version!
Can you even tell which one is broken? I guess you can. It works very effectively for me though. Have been working with it for almost a month now and it has held up very nicely.
Okay, some quick learnings just so that you don’t end up with a feeling that you learned nothing from this —
- In problem solving, create models of the solution you are looking for. Define its boundaries, properties, its expected nature. The more well-defined your model is, the better your solution will be. Once this step is done, do a lookup in everything you know to find things that match your requirement.
- Be open to revisit your model definition. Maybe something you assumed you needed wasn’t really necessary. Use “buckle-less buckle” as a silly metaphor to remember this.
- Tinkering is fun.
If you enjoyed reading this, clap already! The tinkerer in me will definitely get a kick out of it.
