7 ms·

Chindōgu: The Japanese Art of Useless Inventions

128 points by type0 5y ago

bitcurious 5y ago
In “The Book of Thinkage” (which I heard of on HN), one of the characters practices “cozy” - making his space fit his exact needs, by adding a shelf here, a lever there. There’s something universal, and quite satisfying, about the instinct to shape the world around us to match our individualisms. It’s like all of our random automation scripts, but physical.
stavros 5y ago
This speaks to my soul.
ezconnect 5y ago
They have lots of gadgets, I saw a karaoke microphone with a cone you sing into so not to disturb the neighbors when you are singing, just like the bowl on ears on the article but applied to a microphone.
- tdeck 5y ago
  Sounds something like a steno mask https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenomask https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenomask
croes 5y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selfie_stick https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selfie_stick was once such an invention
- capableweb 5y ago
  Seems like a bunch of people (tried to at least) patent the selfie stick at one or another point. You wouldn't try to patent something you have no interest in earning money from, and is therefore not Chindōgu
  - croes 5y ago
    Not back then when it wa first mentioned for cameras https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/10/chindogu-japanese-art-of-unuseless.html https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/10/chindogu-japanese-art-...
    - nosianu 5y ago
      That site has some cool stories. I didn't know about "The London Beer Flood of 1814" until just now. https://www.amusingplanet.com/2021/12/the-london-beer-flood-of-1814.html https://www.amusingplanet.com/2021/12/the-london-beer-flood-... > The Horse Shoe Brewery was the site of an unusual tragedy. In 1814, several large vats of beer broke releasing a tsunami of fermented porter in the streets, that killed eight people. > A wave of porter beer 15 feet high swept into New Street, destroying houses and inundating basements.
fujidust 5y ago
Oh, looks like we have our very own in the US via Reddit: https://reddit.com/u/rightcoastguy https://reddit.com/u/rightcoastguy
- capableweb 5y ago
  I'm not sure they qualify to be called "Chindōgu", two of the rules are "It must be a tool that solves everyday life problems" and "It is not for sale" while some inventions of theirs don't solve anything at all, and some of them seems to be for sale in their shop. It's just normal "Unnecessary Inventions".
csydas 5y ago
I think designing "useless" things is actually a really great exercise that forces you to challenge a lot of your biases/assumptions and really flex your muscles. I help teach some people intro-level coding and we practice on "useless" code all the time, like text mangling to do meme-posting, writing some data-moshing tools, etc. It's practical in that it teaches some fundamentals, but the output is ultimately silly but observable. (e.g., there's not much value to the program but a successful output is clear) Useless inventions are pretty fun for a lot of things; theatre/home movies are filled with such things as CG is typically too much work for an individual, so practical effects need to be used. For a movie I made for a friend, we had to figure out how to make a puppet "blow" into a party noise maker, and came up with the strangest contraption involving straws and a lot of tape; a overall "useless" invention, but turns out there's a lot more going into making noise with a party noise maker than you'd imagine. Useless inventions are a great exercise of creativity and logic, blending the practical side of our minds with the emotional/fantastical parts that just want to make such fun and fantastical things work.
sersi 5y ago
Those eyedrop funnels glasses look really useful. As someone who has a very hard time using eyedrops they might actually help me.
- ansible 5y ago
  Given that they need to be sterile and dust-free when you use them... I don't think so. Otherwise you are just causing more problems for your eyes.
mcshicks 5y ago
We really enjoyed the book "101 unuseless japanese inventions" with our kids when they were growing up, which was the first time I heard about chindogu. It might still make a nice gift for some people, especially adolescents. It seems like the book is available on archive.org https://archive.org/details/101unuselessjapa00kawa https://archive.org/details/101unuselessjapa00kawa
noyesno 5y ago
Reminds me of Bonk Business: ” Bonk Business is a fictional corporation created by Finnish artist and sculptor Alvar Gullichsen. The "products of Bonk Business" are absurd machines, such as the paranormal cannon, that have no apparent use, and which are built by Gullichsen. The story is that Bonk machines are powered by anchovy oil. The works parody corporate and marketing cliches in a retrofuturistic style.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonk_Business https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonk_Business
suction 5y ago
I simply love every Japanese term starting with "Chin".
- SapporoChris 5y ago
  I recommend glancing at a Japanese dictionary sometime.
  - suction 5y ago
    Would a Chinese one do?
laumars 5y ago
There used to be a U.K. TV show (CBBC) based on this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27ll_Never_Work%3F https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27ll_Never_Work%3F
TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
Is this how SkyMall started?
ctdonath 5y ago
"Strange how much human progress and achievement comes from contemplation of the irrelevant." - Scott Kim
hinkley 5y ago
The shoes for stealing pachinko balls are amazing. I thought I could see it coming but I thought he had magnets in those chunky soles.
Lamad123 5y ago
chopsticks on clothespin seem very useful (at least from the point of view of the two thirds of humanity).
lanewinfield 5y ago
I now know there's a name for the category of my Zoom pull cord. https://twitter.com/lanewinfield/status/1339257875034566656 https://twitter.com/lanewinfield/status/1339257875034566656 I've never sold it and I don't plan to sell it. And it's definitely because of Chindogu rule 5 and definitely not because hardware scaling is very hard.
- cookie_monsta 5y ago
  This isn't a rebuke at all or a request to post your content elsewhere, but it seems that a lot of regular Twitter users may not realise that you can't access links like yours without being logged in to Twitter. Not saying you should care, just pointing it out.
  - canttestthis 5y ago
    Works for me, I'm not logged in.
    - cookie_monsta 5y ago
      Oh, ok sorry. Better to say that for reasons known only to Twitter, some people may need to be logged in to see this.
  - childeofentropy 5y ago
    use nitter.net ;)
tdeck 5y ago
> The Japanese, however, believe otherwise. There are just some things that need to be invented even when people don’t really need it. > Finding it difficult to spread butter on your morning toast? There’s an invention for that. Have a terrible cold and constantly need tissue to blow your nose? The Japanese have exactly what you need. Is this particularly "Japanese"? We used to have a magazine in the US called Skymall that was full of these kinds of inventions. Hammacker Schlemmer is one company in particular that sells a lot of them.
- tasha0663 5y ago
  I would always take the SkyMall catalog when I was a kid. It was a comedic gold mine. Personal favorite: Safe-T-Man https://www.gusworld.com.au/rotd/9610/safe.htm https://www.gusworld.com.au/rotd/9610/safe.htm
johnjungles 5y ago
I follow unnecessaryinventions guy to get my Chindogu fix
animal_spirits 5y ago
If anyone hasn't seen HEBOCON, the Crappy Robot competition, do yourself a favor and give it a watch :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46ivFpsmEVQ&list=FLJQD_w9-umuz84AQLo2VD2g&index=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46ivFpsmEVQ&list=FLJQD_w9-um...
mwattsun 5y ago
This is really cool. Another Japanese concept is Wabi Sabi, which has really helped me overcome perfectionism in my code. In traditional Japanese aesthetics, wabi-sabi (侘寂) is a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of appreciating beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete" in nature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi

128 points by type0 5y ago

In “The Book of Thinkage” (which I heard of on HN), one of the characters practices “cozy” - making his space fit his exact needs, by adding a shelf here, a lever there. There’s something universal, and quite satisfying, about the instinct to shape the world around us to match our individualisms. It’s like all of our random automation scripts, but physical.

stavros 5y ago

This speaks to my soul.

ezconnect 5y ago

They have lots of gadgets, I saw a karaoke microphone with a cone you sing into so not to disturb the neighbors when you are singing, just like the bowl on ears on the article but applied to a microphone.

tdeck 5y ago
Sounds something like a steno mask https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenomask https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenomask

croes 5y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selfie_stick https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selfie_stick was once such an invention

capableweb 5y ago
Seems like a bunch of people (tried to at least) patent the selfie stick at one or another point. You wouldn't try to patent something you have no interest in earning money from, and is therefore not Chindōgu
- croes 5y ago
  Not back then when it wa first mentioned for cameras https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/10/chindogu-japanese-art-of-unuseless.html https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/10/chindogu-japanese-art-...
  - nosianu 5y ago
    That site has some cool stories. I didn't know about "The London Beer Flood of 1814" until just now. https://www.amusingplanet.com/2021/12/the-london-beer-flood-of-1814.html https://www.amusingplanet.com/2021/12/the-london-beer-flood-... > The Horse Shoe Brewery was the site of an unusual tragedy. In 1814, several large vats of beer broke releasing a tsunami of fermented porter in the streets, that killed eight people. > A wave of porter beer 15 feet high swept into New Street, destroying houses and inundating basements.

fujidust 5y ago

Oh, looks like we have our very own in the US via Reddit: https://reddit.com/u/rightcoastguy https://reddit.com/u/rightcoastguy

capableweb 5y ago
I'm not sure they qualify to be called "Chindōgu", two of the rules are "It must be a tool that solves everyday life problems" and "It is not for sale" while some inventions of theirs don't solve anything at all, and some of them seems to be for sale in their shop. It's just normal "Unnecessary Inventions".

csydas 5y ago

I think designing "useless" things is actually a really great exercise that forces you to challenge a lot of your biases/assumptions and really flex your muscles. I help teach some people intro-level coding and we practice on "useless" code all the time, like text mangling to do meme-posting, writing some data-moshing tools, etc. It's practical in that it teaches some fundamentals, but the output is ultimately silly but observable. (e.g., there's not much value to the program but a successful output is clear) Useless inventions are pretty fun for a lot of things; theatre/home movies are filled with such things as CG is typically too much work for an individual, so practical effects need to be used. For a movie I made for a friend, we had to figure out how to make a puppet "blow" into a party noise maker, and came up with the strangest contraption involving straws and a lot of tape; a overall "useless" invention, but turns out there's a lot more going into making noise with a party noise maker than you'd imagine. Useless inventions are a great exercise of creativity and logic, blending the practical side of our minds with the emotional/fantastical parts that just want to make such fun and fantastical things work.

sersi 5y ago

Those eyedrop funnels glasses look really useful. As someone who has a very hard time using eyedrops they might actually help me.

ansible 5y ago
Given that they need to be sterile and dust-free when you use them... I don't think so. Otherwise you are just causing more problems for your eyes.

mcshicks 5y ago

We really enjoyed the book "101 unuseless japanese inventions" with our kids when they were growing up, which was the first time I heard about chindogu. It might still make a nice gift for some people, especially adolescents. It seems like the book is available on archive.org https://archive.org/details/101unuselessjapa00kawa https://archive.org/details/101unuselessjapa00kawa

noyesno 5y ago

Reminds me of Bonk Business: ” Bonk Business is a fictional corporation created by Finnish artist and sculptor Alvar Gullichsen. The "products of Bonk Business" are absurd machines, such as the paranormal cannon, that have no apparent use, and which are built by Gullichsen. The story is that Bonk machines are powered by anchovy oil. The works parody corporate and marketing cliches in a retrofuturistic style.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonk_Business https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonk_Business

suction 5y ago

I simply love every Japanese term starting with "Chin".

SapporoChris 5y ago
I recommend glancing at a Japanese dictionary sometime.
- suction 5y ago
  Would a Chinese one do?

laumars 5y ago

There used to be a U.K. TV show (CBBC) based on this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27ll_Never_Work%3F https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27ll_Never_Work%3F

TedDoesntTalk 5y ago

Is this how SkyMall started?

ctdonath 5y ago

"Strange how much human progress and achievement comes from contemplation of the irrelevant." - Scott Kim

hinkley 5y ago

The shoes for stealing pachinko balls are amazing. I thought I could see it coming but I thought he had magnets in those chunky soles.

Lamad123 5y ago

chopsticks on clothespin seem very useful (at least from the point of view of the two thirds of humanity).

lanewinfield 5y ago

I now know there's a name for the category of my Zoom pull cord. https://twitter.com/lanewinfield/status/1339257875034566656 https://twitter.com/lanewinfield/status/1339257875034566656 I've never sold it and I don't plan to sell it. And it's definitely because of Chindogu rule 5 and definitely not because hardware scaling is very hard.

cookie_monsta 5y ago
This isn't a rebuke at all or a request to post your content elsewhere, but it seems that a lot of regular Twitter users may not realise that you can't access links like yours without being logged in to Twitter. Not saying you should care, just pointing it out.
- canttestthis 5y ago
  Works for me, I'm not logged in.
  - cookie_monsta 5y ago
    Oh, ok sorry. Better to say that for reasons known only to Twitter, some people may need to be logged in to see this.
- childeofentropy 5y ago
  use nitter.net ;)

tdeck 5y ago

> The Japanese, however, believe otherwise. There are just some things that need to be invented even when people don’t really need it. > Finding it difficult to spread butter on your morning toast? There’s an invention for that. Have a terrible cold and constantly need tissue to blow your nose? The Japanese have exactly what you need. Is this particularly "Japanese"? We used to have a magazine in the US called Skymall that was full of these kinds of inventions. Hammacker Schlemmer is one company in particular that sells a lot of them.

tasha0663 5y ago
I would always take the SkyMall catalog when I was a kid. It was a comedic gold mine. Personal favorite: Safe-T-Man https://www.gusworld.com.au/rotd/9610/safe.htm https://www.gusworld.com.au/rotd/9610/safe.htm

johnjungles 5y ago

I follow unnecessaryinventions guy to get my Chindogu fix

animal_spirits 5y ago

If anyone hasn't seen HEBOCON, the Crappy Robot competition, do yourself a favor and give it a watch :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46ivFpsmEVQ&list=FLJQD_w9-umuz84AQLo2VD2g&index=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46ivFpsmEVQ&list=FLJQD_w9-um...

mwattsun 5y ago

This is really cool. Another Japanese concept is Wabi Sabi, which has really helped me overcome perfectionism in my code. In traditional Japanese aesthetics, wabi-sabi (侘寂) is a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of appreciating beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete" in nature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi