> But, surprise, this second option doesn't scale. Because as soon as the nice asian shop goes viral, they realise they can’t keep up with the demand at all. And so they will probably refuse lots of customers. (Note, I’m not even considering the option they might increase prices)
I've always wondered -- who cares if you hit a scaling limit? Why can't you just coast on huge demand, refuse some customers, and have a sustainable business that's founded on trust in the quality of your product?
> but at the same time somehow sound just similar enough that the boundary that should exist around them as symbols never properly formed.
I definitely relate to that for some things. I have a distinct memory of struggling to memorize 6x7, 7x7 and 7x8 in elementary school. What I settled on was just artificially making the numbers "stick out" in my head... It's hard to explain, but for example for 7x7=49, the way I pronounce it in my head is really distinct, and I'm also very "passionate" (as a mnemonic, but also genuinely) about how it "makes no sense" that the numbers 7 and 7 could make 49. Similarly with 42, I have this idea of 6 and 7 combining in such a clunky way that they somehow produce 42, and this image of them forming a kind of gnarled-up branch to "reach" 42.
Anyway, just an interesting thing I've never put into words about this point -- I'm realizing that when I can't remember something, I kind of toss around a concept in my head until one of these nonsense mnemonics has a match. I'm also reminded of "memory palaces," where people assign concepts to a mental location even when there's not necessarily a correlation, and it drastically improves their recall. Maybe I should try this more -- now I'm wondering why I apply this to some things and not others.
It looks like it's been iterated on quite a few times. Here's an active descendant project, for anyone that might be interested: https://github.com/sunaku/tamzen-font
I've always wondered -- who cares if you hit a scaling limit? Why can't you just coast on huge demand, refuse some customers, and have a sustainable business that's founded on trust in the quality of your product?