It has to do something.
Even beauty has a job. Your work should move something forward—a person, a process, a possibility. If it doesn’t serve, it isn’t finished.
#practicality
#actionability
#relevance
#usefulness
#leverage
#tooling
#deliverable
#impact
#purpose
#consequence
Understanding Utility: A Primer for Builders
đź§˝ What Is Utility?
Utility is the measure of how well a system works in the real world—for real people, in real contexts.
It is not how beautiful it is.It is not how much it resonates.
It is how well it helps someone accomplish something.
⚡ Utility Is Always For Someone
Designing for Utility is about service, not spectacle.
💬 “Make it work for someone.”— which brings us to Stephen Hawking.
đź§ Utility in the Life of Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking used a single cheek muscle to communicate entire books.
The utility wasn’t in the fanciness of the tech—it was in how well it enabled him to continue thinking, writing, teaching.
Need | Utility Delivered |
Speech | Cheek-operated interface that translated twitches into words. |
Writing | Custom AI word prediction to save keystrokes. |
Dignity | A system that respected his pace and let him remain an intellectual force. |
That’s utility. Respectful, enabling, and invisible when done well.
đź’¨ Dark Utility: Yes, Even a Nail Gun Can Kill
Utility is agnostic to morality.
- A nail gun can build housing or commit murder.
- A memory assistant can help preserve a child’s voice—or train surveillance models.
So Utility must always be paired with Trust and Resonance to serve something larger.
🎛️ Calibration Table: Where Is the Utility?
Let’s go back to your Resonance Use Cases and identify the functional layer—that “do something” layer—for each.
Use Case | Utility | Invisible If Working Well? |
Village Civic Tech | Submit issues, join discussions, stay informed. | Yes – it becomes the civic plumbing. |
Elders & Oral Histories | Speak stories, preserve them, searchable by kin. | Yes – it fades into ritual. |
Therapy, Journaling, Recovery | Offload emotions, track healing, spot triggers. | Yes – like a silent companion. |
Teen Reflection & Expression | Try identities, explore safely, store ephemeral truth. | Yes – like a mirror that doesn’t judge. |
Churches & Spiritual Groups | Guide ritual, interpret meaning, transcribe services. | Mostly – like a shared spiritual memory. |
Local Artists & Storytellers | Generate ideas, shape narrative, prep for performance. | No – often collaborative in feel. |
Libraries & Archives | Search and re-discover layered memory. | Yes – like a second brain for the town. |
Town Hall Participation | Auto-summarize agendas, allow async participation. | Yes – if it works, no one notices. |
Civic Event Organizers | Gather feedback, seed future action, support newcomers. | Sometimes – often a visible layer. |
Museum & Memory Projects | Enhance context, support visitor reflection. | No – it’s meant to be part of the show. |
Neighborhood Safety Networks | Capture incidents, create shared response maps. | Partly – it disappears only after trust. |
Youth Mentorship | Track growth, guide reflection, celebrate moments. | No – best when co-owned. |
Local Journalists | Index events, connect quotes, contextualize. | Yes – background semantic tools. |
DIY Legal/Health Navigators | Explain, simplify, warn of traps, prep people. | Ideally – like having a clear-eyed friend. |
Climate and Resilience Teams | Map risks, simulate outcomes, anchor memory. | Yes – utility is in the scenario outputs. |
đź§Ş Calibration Prompts: Can You Feel the Utility?
Use these to test whether an idea is grounded in utility:
- If this disappeared tomorrow, what would stop working?
- Would someone miss it—or not even notice?
- Is it helping someone move forward, understand, or act?
- Is it enabling someone to do what they couldn’t before?
- Would this feel like an assistant—or an obstacle?