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Comment by ericdykstra | Hacker News Reader

The best design starts with the purpose. By thinking "what is the purpose of a cotton swab?" or "what is the purpose of the binding on a notebook?" a lot of unnecessary waste can be reduced. Muji is a great example of a company that really designs with purpose over absolutely everything else, and it's reflected in their style and timelessness of their product design.

This page, too. It's not over-designed, and there's plenty of white space and there's nothing superfluous on there.

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> what is the purpose of a cotton swab?

If you answer "cleaning my ear", you're risking serious damage.

That's both a specific warning (DO NOT PUT COTTON SWABS IN YOUR EAR) and a more general question: How do you plan to deal with misuse of your product? "Not dealing with it" is a form of dealing with it; it's not really possible to duck this question. With cotton swabs, the answer seems to be "education and a lot of damaged eardrums".

How do you clean your ears?

you don't. they clean themselves. little hairs bring out the stuff far enough for you to be able to wash without the need for tools. and you might want to to clean your ears out every few years by a pro.

I just wanted to reiterate this. From personal experience, this is a bad idea. I never perforated a ear drum with a cotton swab, but I did (and continue to have) extensive ear problems and used to clean my ear religiously as a result, in the hopes of keeping it clean and infection-free. Only later did I realise the damage I was doing. Even something that sounds as benign as compacting ear wax through the motion of the swab (you don't get it all out, and what's left behind gets compressed and built up) can have serious consequences.

I am not a doctor, so don't take my word for it. Here's the relevant wiki page with citations:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_swab#Medical_risks

As always, this is one of those things that you don't think about when you're healthy and your ears are fine. But if you've ever had issues you have a whole new appreciation for how delicate your ears are. I always cringe when I read about people using cotton swabs for cleaning their ears, let alone other objects! (I once heard about someone using car keys?! and then puncturing their ear drum)

If this is part of your routine, you owe it to yourself to at least google the issue.

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