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Comment by scollet | Hacker News Reader

I would personally replace "Tools" with "Cognitive models".

A hammer and a nail gun really don't differ all that much when your task is binding wood.

As someone in the trades, I really disagree. Most applications that require a hammer could not be accomplished with a nail gun. Nail guns are great for attaching thin materials over thicker materials, like putting MDX onto a frame or attaching roofing materials. You don't generally frame with a nail gun because you want to use larger and heavier nails driven a lot deeper. For very light or precision work on finished surfaces you go back to the hammer because it reduces the chance of scuffing or marking on the surface.

"Binding wood" is much more nuanced than you make it seem.

Oh man, if you haven't seen "Reality Contains a Surprising Amount of Detail", prepare to be delighted.

Also: I thought there were framing nailers that fire larger coated sinkers like you'd drive with a hammer? When are those appropriate, and when should nailing framing be done by hand?

No one hammers framing nails by hand anymore, except occasionally. The framing nailer has completely taken over. There are even very good cordless framing nailers now, so no dragging an air hose behind you everywhere you go.

It's been a few years since I did any framing, so I could be wrong about the current state of the industry.

I worked as a framer with my dad for around 4 years in the mid 2000s. We framed small residential homes in southern Colorado and although we would always carry a hammer on our belt to "align" a stud, bend flashing and drive in nails that hit a knot; nail guns hooked up to a shared compressor was how nearly everything got, well, nailed together.

What the analogy proposes as that the cog models and tools sort of develop in tandem.

It's a logical step from a hammer to another driver because you have experience with the fundamental tools.

I would say that cognitive models develop more rapidly and we design tools to fill that space, occasionally developing a tool that can expand the space, usually by building on knowns.

Sorry to diminish your trade in particular :) It was the first thing that came to mind.

I hope that makes sense in context.

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