The Towel

Overview

Per The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a towel is "about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have." The reasons are practical (it has many uses) and social (if you have one, other people assume you have everything else).^[1]

On Preparedness

The Towel is really a parable about preparation. The person who knows where their towel is, is — by implication — the person who thought about the trip before the trip. Building people know this well. Show up with a sharp pencil, a charged phone, a working battery, and a tape that doesn't lie, and the day works out better than it has any right to.

• On a job site: the equivalent of the towel is a pencil, a speed square, and a tape that works.
• In software: the equivalent is a working local environment, a recent backup, and a fully-charged laptop.
• On a trail: the equivalent is a spare tube, a multi-tool, and water.
• In a meeting: the equivalent is the doc, the data, and a written proposal.

Notice that "knowing where your towel is" is always about something small, always about something boring, and always about something that makes everything else possible.

Towel Day

May 25 is observed as Towel Day in honor of Douglas Adams. Burbridge observes it by carrying an unusually fresh rag in a back pocket, which is, in its way, Burbridge's version of a towel.

References