I was delighted to discover a review of dawdlr today lamenting that it couldn't see the point of it. Brilliant. If something's been dismissed as pointless it's probably destined for success, but a certain degree of pointlessness saves you from being stalked by the monetisation monsters.
I've been thinking about the joys of pointlessness ever since it occurred to us, while building the instorematic, that one of the things we need to do is strike the right balance between pointful and pointless. It could just spit a postcard out of the printer straight into a tray, but that would be so prosaic as to be pointless. And we could build a track that carried the postcard all the way round the shop and up and down Carnaby Street, whistling Max Boyce songs, but that would be, well, too pointless.
There's a balance to be struck, somewhere between captivating and irritating. Let's hope we get it right.
(While we were debating the optimum level of pointlessness Matt also pointed out we were following some distinguished predecessors. It seems some beauty and some play add up to a lot of point.)
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