> guardrails that protect the ignorant from themselves -- like the torque setting on the drill
This analogy didn't make sense to me the first time it played, and still doesn't here. Somebody who doesn't know how to operate a drill won't touch the clutch, and the clutch isn't there to avoid hurting the user's hands in the first place. It's there to avoid over-driving fasteners. It is a function for enabling somebody who does know what they're doing to work faster; you can prepare a fastener by keying in the clutch on the first couple before going on autopilot to drive screws to predictable depth without worrying about feathering the trigger or trashing the screw head from cam out.
This analogy didn't make sense to me the first time it played, and still doesn't here. Somebody who doesn't know how to operate a drill won't touch the clutch, and the clutch isn't there to avoid hurting the user's hands in the first place. It's there to avoid over-driving fasteners. It is a function for enabling somebody who does know what they're doing to work faster; you can prepare a fastener by keying in the clutch on the first couple before going on autopilot to drive screws to predictable depth without worrying about feathering the trigger or trashing the screw head from cam out.