Tolerance, Tolerations, and ADHD Sensitivity
It’s the little things that really suck your life away.
In Adam Savage’s sort-of-autobiography Every Tool’s a Hammer, he dedicates an entire chapter to the engineering concept of “tolerances”. He’s using the word in the context of measurement — that is, how precisely a machine part has been measured to specification. “I need this fitting to be accurate to within .0001 of an inch, with a tolerance of +/- .00002”.
He incorporates this idea into his eighth commandment for DIY makers:
Measure carefully. Have some tolerance. You know what tolerance is? If something fits tightly into something — that’s a close tolerance. If something fits loosely, that’s a loose tolerance. Knowing the difference between tight and loose tolerance is perhaps the most important measure of a craftsperson.
Essentially, it’s wiggle room. He talks about how having a “loose tolerance” for yourself is helpful, because it gives you permission to make mistakes and learn from them.
The reason a BMW Z4 is so much faster and quieter than my Toyota Scion has to do with tolerance: even in something as small as the turn signal, you can feel how the parts have been engineered to fit together more precisely on the BMW. There’s no wiggle. Having that kind of tight…
