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Comment by sandreas | Hacker News Reader

Nice article. Unfortunately there is a limitation to this way of thinking in my daily business - the WAF ;-)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wife_acceptance_factor

Luckily the articles' principle doesn't only apply to building furniture.

Edit - Clarification:

This comment describes only my personal situation and should in no way harm anyone. It is a satiric way of stating out that if you are not alone in your apartment you have to

  1. Respect others feelings when rearranging your stuff or putting new things in
  2. Regard the importance to build something aesthetical / beautiful rather than only useful

I would love to see the author having emphasized these two aspects.

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I like that you shortened it to WAF. Now I will always imagine Web Application Firewalls to be the wife of the application. And she denies all strange requests entry.

Fun image, though some overly sensitive people might decry it as sexism somehow, so probably not something i can joke about at work.

The WAF is not incompatible with this way of thinking - it just requires you to extend your creative reach to come up with solutions that are also aesthetically pleasing.

Me, I like to work with negative space when I’m making furniture - take stuff away to create something, add as little as necessary.

I also have my fair share of Heath Robinson contraptions, but as long as I keep them invisible (i.e. tucked away in a shed or a hutch quietly fulfilling its function) the WAF is fulfilled - and I have a stringent set of controls and policies set out by the SWAMBO.

Our bed is made out of leftover construction lumber and OSBs, but it’s very pretty, as it’s also made out of a bunch of walnut veneer doors I found by the roadside. Our kitchen is built from scrap wood from a skip, and the countertops are upside down concrete pavers with a tadelakt topcoat. The sink is a rock I took an angle grinder to. The faucets came from a “5 bits for €1” box of junk. People keep asking me who designed it, where did I buy X, Y, Z.

So, yeah. There’s no incompatibility - I started with the kind of quick and dirty hacks the roommate does as a student - but now that I’m pushing 40, I prefer to execute my stingy projects with quality.

Side note: angle grinders are vastly underappreciated

Maybe it's because I didn't grow up (completely) on a farm, but between circular saw (regular blade), angle grinder, and circular saw (diamond blade) you can cut and shape just about everything with enough care.

This is an appropriate time to share a story about a co-worker. We went to Kroger for lunch (grocery store, like Publix, sells pre-packaged sandwiches). Every time we went, he would do $5-10 in cashback. I asked why. He said so he has spending money that his wife doesn't know about. Minor, but always struck me as an epitome of deception and lengths people will go to in order to avoid honesty in their marriage.

Maybe he saved it up and used to it buy her an anniversary gift. There needs to be a little mystery.

Ha you got us there - there is also WHF (Wife Hiding Factor).

What is the new thing on your desk (splurged on a Mac Pro) - no my dear I always had it - got it from Craigslist/gumtree for a steal.

Finally there's the WCF - Wife Compensation Factor;

"Here, I bought you one too."

I complained to my GF yesterday that the apple TV remote always gets lost in the sofa cushions, and opined that a bright fluoro yellow remote would be much better.

She said it was a terrible idea and would be a complete eyesore (which was exactly my point!)

It doesn't have to be an eyesore, we use one of these [0]. Now we never lose that darn remote.

[0]: https://smile.amazon.com/Remote-Generation-Silicone-Controll...

(Author here) To be fair, he asked our roommates about using materials from our shared living space.

I'll be using WAF in the future, however :)

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