Maslow's Hammer

You've probably heard the phrase If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. This phrase is called Maslow's hammer and is derived from this longer passage by psychologist Abraham Maslow in his 1966 book The Psychology of Science: I remember seeing an elaborate and complicated automatic washing machine for automobiles that did a beautiful job of washing them. But it could do only that, and everything else that got into its clutches was treated as if it were an automobile to be washed. I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.