From: Guillemot@aol.com
Date: Mon, 6 Mar 1995 21:45:25 -0500
Message-Id: <950306214523_41399785@aol.com>
To: QajakDan@aol.com, baidarka@imagelan.com
Subject: Re: Traditional Kayak Designs
qajakdan@aol.com (QajakDan)/Schlenoff@SciAm.Com (Dan Schlenof) writes
>I suspect that kayak design changed very slowly along the generations,
>with decades of thought put into how they performed. It is also probably
>that some bad aspects of kayak design were stubbornly clung to for far
>longer than they should have been.
I would suggest that the rate of invention was no different than today.
Periods of rapid innovation as one or two gifted inventors made radical
improvements followed by long periods of slow refinement. The occasional
backslide would also occur when someone thinks "If a little X is a cool
thing, a lot of X should be a way cool thing." The average person is not that
innovative or that daring that they will vary from a proven concept.
Tradition is also a very powerful force. It is easy to rationalize clinging
to a outmoded idea. --E-mail is de-personallizing, it is much more personal
putting a letter in the mailbox and waiting 2 weeks for a reply--. There is
also a tendency to ascribe virtue to a traditional shortcoming. --When I was
a kid I had to drive a car with brakes you needed to use both feet to make it
stop. I really learned how to drive. I don't know why these kids all want the
new-fangled anti-lock brakes.--