unuseless

Having encountered the idea of chindōgu (珍道具) previously, we appreciated coming across this deeper dive into the design conventions of the inventions, interventions and other “curious tools” that are categorized as unusually useless. These obsessive, eccentric and otherwise over-engineered gadgets adhere to a set of principles including:

• There must be the Spirit of Anarchy in Every Chindōgu
• Chindōgu are not Propaganda
• Chindōgu cannot be Patented

Discover a whole gallery of inventions created in this spirit at Open Culture and at the links above. The Selfie Stick was probably created according to these design commandments but broke through like so many backscratchers, shoehorns and other as seen on TV items to more mainstream retail.