Chronically Bothered

Chronically bothered
From The Corrections:

‘He was chronically bothered by the T erupting in the middle of the word CenTrust. He wanted to push the T down hard, like a nipple, but when he pushed it down he got no satisfaction. He got cent-rust: a corroded penny.’

There is such pleasure in savoring the rightness of a design, from the Vespa to the Beetle. I have certain pairs of shoes that make me twist my foot admiringly when I’m not being watched.

This pleasure comes at a price. Bad design, sloppy layouts, jargon—these cause grief equal to or greater than the other delight. Part of my job involves designing user interfaces. When a layout doesn’t work out just so, I tell myself it doesn’t matter. Babies won’t die. But I never quite believe it.