Understanding the Hammer

By Michael Bane (http://www.theoutdoorwire.com/specials/2012concealed_story.html?id=226738)

"I suppose it's tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail..."

"The Law of the Instrument"
Abraham Maslow, 1966

Sure, it's a cliche, but that doesn't make it any less true. I actually prefer the earlier incarnation of the homily from yet another famous psychologist, Abraham Kaplan, who noted that, "Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding."