The essence of tools is to expand the abilities of their users. But as the products of humans, not all tools are created equal. At lo-fi-fo-fum, we have found that the best tools have a few things in common, and they are fundamental to everything we make.

SIMPLICITY

Given several ways to do something, the best way, for a toolsmith, is the one that needs the fewest elementary steps to achieve the same end result. A toolsmith's job is done not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away, and the best tool is one that functions seamlessly and intuitively as an extension of a skilled user's body.

MODULARITY

A tool should be easy to use in combination with other tools. Its inputs, the functions it performs on them, and the outputs it creates as a result, should all be not only well-defined, but should be defined in such a way as to make it as easy as possible for the user to combine them in as many ways as possible with as many other tools as possible. This not only facilitates the creation of complex machines out of simple tools, but also makes modifications, upgrades, and maintenance easier for the user, as well as making the tools themselves more intuitive to use and understand.

RELIABILITY

A tool that breaks easily or produces inconsistent results is a bad tool. A user should be confident that a tool used in a certain way will produce the same result every time under the conditions for which it was designed, with as little effort and maintenance as possible. The best tools are those that perform this way even under adverse or extreme conditions, including those for which the tool was not designed, which is our next key attribute of our tools.

HACKABILITY

Good tools are useful for the purposes for which they were designed, but the best tools are most often those that are useful for purposes beyond those for which they were designed. This is the essence of hacking in the general sense: using tools in clever and unexpected ways to produce novel results. Much has come from this throughout the history of technology, from anchor winches inspiring the revolver, to phonograph parts and steel string attached to a wooden plank to prototype the electric guitar. Necessity is the mother of invention, and nobody understands necessity in a tool like the user of that tool. Hackability lies in making the other aspects of the tool easy for the user to understand, and modify, as well, which leads to the last key attribute of our tools.

TRANSPARENCY

Although they have now become something quite different, the original purpose of patents was to ensure that the clever stuff people worked out to improve technology and concepts would not be kept secret - "patent" means "open". No matter how smart you are, some mind out of the billions in the world will think of a way to improve on what you've done or spot a flaw you didn't see; this is the very basis of modern science, and thus engineering, itself. Open-source is a major part of this, but the core value of transparency in making tools is even deeper than that: at its most fundamental, it means making an active effort to not only show your work, but also to make that work as easy to understand as possible for others.

In each of these goals for our products, and overall in all of them, our aim can be summed up in three words: empower the user. We not only believe that users very often provide the sparks of new ideas that push concepts and techniques forward - we know it from experience. That is why, as long as we are making tools, empowering the people that use them to make the very most they possibly can of our tools will be our paramount and ultimate goal.