By Gary M. Jaron
1794
Abraham Maslow once said something very important about ideas as tools. He did so by way of commenting on the work and analysis being done by Skinnerian psychologists. Maslow stated: ‘If the only thing you happen to have is a hammer, then you will tend to treat everything as if it were a nail.’ [1] I call this the tool trap and I hope to help you find a way to avoid this. Maslow’s realization is this: that every tool by its very nature imposes its nature, its essence, its usefulness and its uselessness upon the user and shapes the context of the user interacting with his environment. I’ll repeat myself, every tool does this by shaping the user’s environment into being perceived in accordance with the tools limitations and usefulness. Hence if you have only a hammer you will unconsciously distort and ignore the actual nature of your environment and you will consider all the things around you only in accordance within the context of that tool. In the example of the tool the hammer everything other than the hammer must be nails, things to be pounded upon, to be interacted with and by the nature of the hammer.
To avoid the tool trap you first must be aware that you can be tool trapped. Secondly, to escape the limitations of any one tool you must have many. Which is why its is important for you to collect ideas, to keep seeking and acquiring more tools and thus to avoid being limited in your ability to interact and comprehend your environment .
[1] This quote is attributed, without a source text to Abraham Maslow by Robert Ornstein in his book The Psychology of Consciousness, pg. 60 of the 1986, 2nd revised edition, Penguin Books. In the 1972 edition of the same book on page 23, the quote is footnoted. The footnote references without a page number to Abraham Maslow’s book The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance, Henry Regnery, 1969..
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