Darius J Chuck

Perfection

A quote from Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the author of The Little Prince, who was also a pioneering aviator:

It seems that the work of engineers, draftsmen, calculators of the design office is thus in appearance, only to polish and erase, to lighten this connection, to balance this wing, until that we no longer notice it, until there is no longer a wing attached to a fuselage, but a perfectly open form, finally free from its matrix, a sort of spontaneous whole, mysteriously linked, and of the same quality as that of the poem. It seems that perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to take away. At the end of its evolution, the machine hides itself.

The perfection of invention thus borders on the absence of invention. And, just as, in the instrument, all apparent mechanics have gradually been effaced, and an object as natural as a pebble polished by the sea is delivered to us, it is equally admirable that, in its very use, the machine is gradually being forgotten.

Translated by Google Translate from the French original. The part I boldended here is quite famous on its own.

I remember the peculiar feeling it brought on when I first read it many years ago. A resonance.

With experience this feeling has grown in sophistication, but overall has been reinforced and has guided the way I do design and engineering, as well as how I approach the world in general.

I want to understand and break complex systems down into simple parts which can then be rearranged to harmoniously fit together into simpler systems.

This is moving in the direction of perfection which itself may be moving away or be so far out of reach that we won’t ever be able to catch up. But just walking this path itself is a worthwhile enterprise.