Why the snark? There is much talk on HN and elsewhere about how new ideas are generated, how companies try to be "innovative," etc. This is just his take on one way he comes up with new ideas. I don't have the same fascination with screws, but he obviously didn't mean it to be literal for everyone to do the exact same thing. It certainly made me think about both the physical things and processes all around me that I constantly take for granted. Questioning these things is how we are always evolving and improving. I'd say reminding people of this is valuable.