I’m gonna guess 17:25:20

Right, what I was suggesting was that the fact that it makes sense both ways might have been the reason the inventor settled on that name, as opposed to ‘cabin logs’ or something else.

I’m curious whether that was intentional. The wiki article doesn’t give any background on the choice of name, so I’d say it’s entirely possible that the name is a play on Lincoln/linkin’.

It’s also super cool that they were invented by one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s sons! One biographer claimed that Frank’s middle name at birth was actually Lincoln and his mother changed it, so there’s a possibility of that being an inspiration for the name as well.

Great post, thanks!

I’d say we’re fully in agreement then. I certainly didn’t mean to imply that adding difficulty alone was somehow automatically virtuous. It’s maybe better to say there’s virtue in doing some things the hard way.

I’m actually really curious to hear your definition of virtuous! For me, it’s the ‘has an overall positive effect’ definition, not the wishy-washy ‘moral’ one.

There’s a distinct difference between doing something “the hard way” and adding unnecessary complications. “The hard way” is just a faster way of saying “without all the modern conveniences.” New York to Maine the hard way would be walking rather than driving.

The virtue in doing something the hard way is that it gives you a clearer look at the details. Walking from New York to Maine would give you a much more intimate understanding of the terrain than driving or flying.

I’ve camped there, it’s pretty nice!