If it Ain't Broke, Enhance it

If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it…but that doesn’t mean you can’t enhance it. Where would we be in life if there weren’t any genius mad scientists trying to improve upon the machines and tools we use every day? Doc Brown’s DeLorean wasn’t broken, but he sure fixed it! Regular strength Tylenol wasn’t broken, but isn’t maximum strength a little more efficient? Do we want to be content with how things are, or do we want something better. The same rule that applies to stuff and things applies to life. My life isn’t broken, but can it be fixed (enhanced)? Of course it can. So can yours.


How do we define broken? Typically, something that is broken is unable to accomplish its purpose. A toaster that doesn’t toast is no toaster. Likewise, a car that doesn’t drive, a computer that doesn’t compute, an oven mitt that doesn’t protect a hand, these are all examples of broken things. An item created to perform a specific function which no longer performs that function is a broken item. Is that a satisfactory explanation? I say it is not. I’ve got something different.

A toaster that doesn’t toast is no toaster. A toaster that toasts is a toaster. There are a lot of different types of things you could toast; it isn’t a one size fits all realm. Bagels are different from bread and both are different from frozen waffles. Of course this is old news, and there are toasters with multiple settings for various types of toastable items. The point is that the toaster wasn’t broken, in that it was still able to complete its intended purpose, but it was broken in that it wasn’t able to toast the multitude of toastable objects with much efficiency. It wasn’t completely broken, but it wasn’t at maximum efficiency. This is where enhancements come in.

An enhancement makes something more capable of accomplishing its intended purpose. Toast settings on a toaster are an example of an enhancement. You have a selector switch to determine if you want more toast or less toast. Is a toaster without a selector switch broken? No. Does it accomplish its purpose? Yes. Does a selector switch make a toaster more capable at doing its job? Yes. Does a non-selector switch toaster hold its own against a selector switch toaster? No. Is the non-selector switch toaster broken now?

No, it really isn’t broken. The point isn’t to change the definition of broken, or haven’t I made that clear yet? No. The point is that something doesn’t have to be broken before we address how to make it more efficient. We can’t wait around until the toaster breaks and then while rebuilding it we decide to enhance it. Well, we could, but why wait? That’s the point. Why wait? There are many systems (such as government and formal education) which are limping along, not completely broken, but heavily damaged, and yet they still accomplish a portion of their purposes, so they are left alone. If we wait until they are completely broken we might not be in a state where we are capable of fixing them.

So maybe we do want to change the definition of broken, or maybe just use a different word. Nothing is perfect, and if it ain’t perfect, then enhance it. That can be the phrase. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” as a phrase is broken, so we’ll fix it with an enhancement: “if it ain’t perfect, enhance it!” Now those are some words we could all live by. We’ll enhance our toasters, our DeLorean sports cars, our government, and our lives. None of these things are perfect, nor are they all necessarily broken, but they all can use enhancements.

I don’t know how to enhance everything, if I did, I’d probably do it and I wouldn’t be worrying about having a job and earning a Master’s degree. I’d be making decorative cakes with my wife, just for fun, and all of the children we knew would have cool cakes and lots of cavities. Dentists would be our friends…parents not so much. Perhaps it is better that I don’t have the answers and the money fortune that seems to follow the best ideas in this country. If we even function as a meritocracy any more, I don’t know if we even function as a republic democracy, fully. Back to the point, I don’t know how to enhance everything, but I think if you want to enhance anything you need to get a full scope perspective of the thing. Sit it down, figuratively or literally depending on what it is, and then walk around it. See it from every angle. Get opposing perspectives. Learn all you can about its reason for being created, its capabilities, and its imagined accomplishments. When the right person gets the right item at the right time, enhancements will come.