When is a good idea not a good idea?
When it’s improved
Not hilarious and not that surprising, but why it’s not surprising may surprise you.
The LP record. That was a good idea—it meant people didn’t need to go out in the rain to a concert hall to hear music. They could hear the music they like at home, in comfort. A good idea. Then, along came the CD. It was a better idea than the LP record, because you could spread marmalade on it and it would still play. That’s at least what they said. Then came the mini disc, and then the download and then the stream. Streams of streams.
At one time at least, the LP record made a come-back. The revival of vinyl. Was that a good idea? I thought we’d improved on the LP record, but, no, they came back. Because some DJs like to scratch and some older people like to hear the scratches made by needles on vinyl. (Some people spread marmalade on their CDs and there’s an old German saying “Don’t scratch it, wash it.” Whatever.) The “nostalgia” element (which is inherent in anything from yonks ago) was an “improvement” on the clean, crystal-clear sound of the CD. So, “improvement” doesn’t always mean “better”, but rather “we like it more.”
When a road system is “improved”, it means new road islands, white lines, traffic lights and …. waiting. Improved safety takes time, and – whilst we wait at the traffic light that seeming eternity, until, that is, we sneak a quick SMS onto the mobile; that’s when the light changes—we ponder the benefit of waiting over having been sideswiped by a pantechnicon under the old layout.
If it’s a particularly long wait, we may even consider why it was that for so long the old layout was viewed by the council as being “a good idea”, and why this is so much “better”. It costs money to improve things, maybe money they didn’t have before. Or maybe money they’ve got to spare now, so instead of reducing the rates, they spend it on traffic lights. Even a road sign costs anything from 500 to 2,000 euros, maybe more if they’re bigger—they need to be made to spec, not just pinned up like a spare room ad on a student union notice board. Specifications are themselves an improvement.
But, until specifications are issued, we get along quite happily without them. Otherwise, why wouldn’t we have started off with the “specified” state of affairs from the outset? Why do cathedrals fall down? We don’t build that many these days but, back when Chartres was rising to the glory of God, it fell down. Three times. They kept getting it wrong. Because back in those days, they just built a cathedral and, if it fell down like Chartres did, they said “Oh dear, that didn’t work, did it? Let’s try again.” So specs are there to tell people how things used to fall down in the past.
Are you still waiting at that light? Well, just be grateful that the pantechnicon is as well. But don’t worry, we’ll all be back to listening to vinyl one day.