The first notch is magical

Some years ago, the inimitable channel Technology Collections posted a 17-minute video about the peculiar design quirk of ceiling and room fans – they usually order their options Off → High → Medium → Low rather than the more natural Off → Low → Medium → High. The video is a bit off topic for this channel, but check it out if you’re interested how sometimes weird physics considerations influence design in the real world: In the video, the host also talks about the more natural order that typically looked like this: I wonder if you recognize this kind of an interface. I have a distinct memory of it from radios (where “zero volume” would mean “off”) and from TVs/early computer displays (where “zero brightness” meant “off,” too). There was something special about these controls that stuck in my memory, motor and otherwise: this tangible, heavy click when you ventured outside or back into “off,” almost as if you had to break the interface itself. I thought this, too, was a convention from…