Knolling

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knolling

by bestest • 9 years ago

249 76 9 years ago

en.wikipedia.org

sboselli• 9 years ago

The wikipedia article doesn't mention it, but just like Tom Sachs spent time at Gehry's shop and adopted this term and practice; so did Casey Neistat spent time at Sachs' shop, where he also adopted it (and probably made it more well known than ever before). If you've seen Casey's videos or pictures of his famous NY studio; this is where it all came from.

893helios• 9 years ago

Always be Knolling (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-CTkbHnpNQ)

marklyon• 9 years ago

I enjoy this video, by Casey's brother, outlining the studio rules: https://vimeo.com/34901903

switchbak• 9 years ago

Is this just OCD, or is there an actual benefit to Knolling?

My gut reaction to this is that it's distracting compulsive behaviour, but I could be wrong. I've found organization for a workshop to be of unexpectedly huge value, so I could be wrong here too.

snissn• 9 years ago

It seems that it's really easy to find stuff. Like in this [1] picture, it's really clear where the sledge hammer is, but if things were arranged randomly it would be more difficult

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knolling#/media/File:Ten_Bulle...

mmagin• 9 years ago

I'm not disciplined enough for "Knolling", but I can certainly say that such a practice forces you to put away things you cannot fit on your work surface, so you'd avoid the desk/workbench overflowing with materials and tools that is all too easy to have happen in non-computer activities.

wickawic• 9 years ago

If you are fiddling with lots of tiny pieces (imagine Lego, or watch components), you necessarily need to find every piece you use. If they are organized beforehand then it is much more satisfying and efficient to assemble since all the searching is done beforehand. Think of how it is sometimes much easier to process a list after sorting it.

egypturnash3• 9 years ago

I'm looking at my very much un-knolled desk, which has more piles than I would prefer it to, and it strikes me that if I regularly knolled this desk it would compel me to decide that maybe some of these things really don't belong on it, maybe some of them don't even need to stick around my life at all.

I mean clearly the toy dragon princess standing atop a pile of stray cash and a few doubloons is an important part of my desk and does not need to move. But does this wireless kit I'm never gonna attach to my drawing tablet need to be here? What about that badly-laid-out paperback copy of "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell" that I quit reading in favor of a hardback copy a friend gave me? What about the dust jacket for that hardback? That probably belongs on the book sitting in my To Read pile with a bookmark a fifth of the way through it, not on my desk. And while pens are good to have maybe I only need one or two of them, not sixteen? Would I have accumulated even a quarter as much stuff on this desk if I knolled it every morning?

Knolling is starting to feel like a way of stopping clutter before it starts.

mturmon• 9 years ago

Implementing strict organization can turn O(n^2) tasks to O(n), by removing the "look through my n tools to find the one I need" step.

That is, if you need n tools or parts for an assembly process, and if at each step you have to scan through these tools and parts to find the one needed, you have created an O(n^2) algorithm.

At least, this is how I conceptualize the value of workshop organization.

moomin• 9 years ago

Here I was expecting an article on Google's Wikipedia competitor. But I guess that isn't notable...

falcolas• 9 years ago

Adam Savage is a compulsive knoller - if you watch his podcasts you can frequently see him arranging items in front of him into parallel and perpendicular shapes.

bch• 9 years ago

Adam Savage is a compulsive knoller

And is friends with another famous knoller - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxLxwbm7FMA , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-CTkbHnpNQ

BoppreH• 9 years ago

There's a great subreddit dedicated to this, with lots of content: https://www.reddit.com/r/knolling/

I find it specially interesting when it's done to "dissect" machines, making it look like schematics. I find it helps dispelling the impression of things being black boxes.

ballenf• 9 years ago

No amount of knolling will help me with my usual problem taking apart complicated machinery:

https://xkcd.com/1780/

(That's titled Appliance Repair)

Animats• 9 years ago

That's what little parts boxes with lots of separate compartments are for.[1] That's one of my projects.

[1] http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,43672.25.htm...

Kluny• 9 years ago

Use a big piece of cardboard. Screw screws into it in the same order they came out, and draw an outline of the part they came out of. Tape down small pieces that aren't screws. Label everything with Sharpie. It slows you down enough to prevent a lot of mistakes.

vrotaru• 9 years ago

I had once had to take apart an optical camera.

The approach which worked for me was:

a) Unscrew a few parts b) Screw them back c) Unscrew a few parts and some more d) Screw everything back in that same order ) .. repeat until done

Finally, it all ended well

DanBlake3• 9 years ago

I built a entire website essentially built around this - http://www.everydaycarry.com - its been crazy seeing something that started off as a niche hobby turning into a business

menzoic• 9 years ago

The images are too high res for mobile. It loads too slow.

jasongill2• 9 years ago

The site is ranked in the Alexa top 10,000 in the US - I'd wager that DanBlake knows what he's doing and probably has the site dialed in for his target audience & device already.

DanBlake3• 9 years ago

Hmm, cloudflare should have taken care of that with a feature they have. Il check whats going on

hkon2• 9 years ago

Always liked your site. I wanted to create a similar site, but yours was so good I didn't.

DanBlake3• 9 years ago

Thanks!

Mz• 9 years ago

I thought of your site as soon as I saw this, though, tbh, I don't think of it is a site. I know it from Twitter and somehow it is weird to me to think of it as a site. I can't quite put my finger on why that is.

kosma• 9 years ago

OT: This has been parodied at least once; see Stackenblochen[1].

[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEN5-_93gQg

__jal• 9 years ago

My grandfather carefully painted black silhouettes of tools that hung behind his workbench, so he could tell at a glance if anything was missing. (There was a house rule of use anything you want, but it better go back where it came from when you were done.)

He didn't do that with his toolboxes, but all but one of those were locked.

I do find I do this as a sort of a tick, while thinking through my next step while making stuff.

kaybe• 9 years ago

This is a professional technique.

The hangar I just came from has hard rules - if any tool is missing the planes are grounded until the tool is found. No matter what. So you better don't lose those tools.

rhcom22• 9 years ago

Seems like an especially good rule when working on planes or people. Now where did the surgical sponge go...

closeparen• 9 years ago

Prop tables in theater work the same way (everything must be in its tape outline to proceed with the preshow checklist).

smnscu• 9 years ago

Also see Andrew Kim's book 90° on knolling. Andrew is the designer behind minimallyminimal.com, the Microsoft redesign concept, Xbox One S, who now works at Tesla.

http://www.minimallyminimal.com/blog/90degrees

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/90-degrees/id605530423?mt=1...

noir_lord2• 9 years ago

I bought an Xbox One S recently (didn't know anything about the S it was just a good price for an Xbox).

Its a beautiful piece of hardware and doesn't look out of place under the TV like the old Xboxes somehow did.

ttoinou• 9 years ago

.. But, why ?

DKnoll• 9 years ago

Don't ask me.

state3• 9 years ago

"Always. Be. Knolling." [0], is probably my favorite of Tom Sachs' Ten Bullets. As a whole, it's a pretty good office manual. Better for a studio than a startup office — but worth a look nonetheless.

0 - https://youtu.be/49p1JVLHUos?t=15m38s

mcguire• 9 years ago

"Arbitrary decision making and personal inventiveness are discouraged."

jraines• 9 years ago

Take the good parts, discard the bad. And there are definitely both in this video.

And even on this point, it's not all bad when you consider how design/architecture studios operate. I probably would've been better off as a junior dev if a bit more of my personal inventiveness (cough - ruby metaprogramming - cough) had been smacked down

state3• 9 years ago

jraines mostly got it. It's worth noting the look and feel of the Sachs studio. I doubt anyone is taking that advice completely seriously. But if, instead, you just said 'have fun, do whatever!' things would probably be a huge mess.

qq66• 9 years ago

The role of the assistant is to help the assisted realize his or her goals. In your own work, you can do whatever you want. Sachs is saying only that when you are working as his assistant, focus on implementing his ideas instead of yours.

geff82• 9 years ago

You never stop learning reading HN :)

hkon2• 9 years ago

If you have knolled everything you own but still want more, check out this: http://stupiddesk.com/

keyle• 9 years ago

aside/fun: What would be knolling code be like? :)

bitwize• 9 years ago

I worked at a shop that insisted on one parameter per line in function calls.

cJ0th• 9 years ago

I can't be the only one who expected this to be about a certain Google project that aimed at organizing knowledge ;)

ronjouch• 9 years ago

Didn't know this practice has a name! Thanks HN :)

Sharing the excellent bandcamp of two musicians whose profile picture is a knolling of themselves and their gear. Bandcamp: https://qdrpd.bandcamp.com/ , knolling: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/0000904983_10.jpg

spraak• 9 years ago

I never knew it was Knolling that is in almost every stock photo of a desk for a startup's landing page

duck• 9 years ago

What do you call it if you've always aligned things like this?

Froyoh• 9 years ago

I wish I found about this sooner...

makeset• 9 years ago

Ha! I remember discovering this as a teenager, that I didn't have to actually tidy up my room/desk to avoid getting yelled at, as long as I aligned everything in place at right angles. It's always good to put a name on the phenomenon.

afishisafish• 9 years ago

I own several peaces of Knoll furniture. Certainly not the cheapest, but the build quality is superior and the chairs are extremely comfortable. Great company!

e12e• 9 years ago

Recommend one of the "See also"-links from the Wikipedia page, for those not familiar with the term: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_en_place

NTripleOne• 9 years ago

Holy shit, I had no idea this had a name - I've been doing this all my life.

I guess it also explains why I find angular designs more attractive than rounded/circular ones - sitting here at my desk looking at the circular monitor stand bases, cylindrical bluetooth speaker, coins and some cables coiled up, these things can't be knolled, so I tend to stack round things instead (in diameter order, of course).

leandrod• 9 years ago

How long for deletionists to get wind of it?

Knolling

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