<P> In 1984, investor Warren Buffett criticized academic studies of financial markets that made use of inappropriate mathematical approaches: "It isn't necessarily because such studies have any utility; it's simply that the data are there and academicians have worked hard to learn the mathematical skills needed to manipulate them . Once these skills are acquired, it seems sinful not to use them, even if the usage has no utility or negative utility . As a friend said, to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail ." </P> <P> One application the law of the instrument has been observed in is the prescribing usage of anti-psychotic drugs . During Maslow's era, the only medicines available for psychiatric patients were the anti-psychotics stelazine and thorazine, so it was often the case that other mental illnesses were treated as if they were psychoses . </P> <P> The notion of a golden hammer, "a familiar technology or concept applied obsessively to many software problems", was introduced into information technology literature in 1998 as an anti-pattern: a programming practice to be avoided . </P> <P> Software developer José M. Gilgado has written that the law is still relevant in the 21st century and is highly applicable to software development . Many times software developers, he observed, "tend to use the same known tools to do a completely new different project with new constraints". He blamed this on "the comfort zone state where you don't change anything to avoid risk . The problem with using the same tools every time you can is that you don't have enough arguments to make a choice because you have nothing to compare to and is limiting your knowledge ." The solution is "to keep looking for the best possible choice, even if we aren't very familiar with it". This includes using a computer language with which one is unfamiliar . He noted that the product RubyMotion enables developers to "wrap" unknown computer languages in a familiar computer language and thus avoid having to learn them . But Gilgado found this approach inadvisable, because it reinforces the habit of avoiding new tools . </P>

If all i ever gave you was a hammer