Pagani’s screws

As long as the surface shines, should what’s underneath gather dust?

I like documentaries. I am especially interested in those that develop processes or methodologies, or how aluminum cans are manufactured or how this or that bridge or dam was built. I try to extract ideas from other sectors that help me do my own work better. My relationships with Portland cement or autogenous welding are tangential but deep.

One of these many documentaries was about the manufacturing process of the Pagani Huayra, the million-dollar car. A phrase that a person in charge of the components, speaking and showing a specific piece, stuck with me:

“The seat rests on this piece. It’s a piece Pagani is quite satisfied with because if, one day, the client drops a coin and looks under the seat, he or she will see that it is beautiful.”

Horacio Pagani is the owner and builder of these cars. I don’t know how many coins usually fall out of the pocket of a person who has a million-dollar car parked at home. In this sense, Pagani seems to be oblivious to the theory of probability. In any case, the anecdote stuck with me because it resonated in my head as something familiar, as a very graphic example of…