reductio ad absurdem?

Monday Math: A Rant About Fractions : EvolutionBlog:

Let me tell you what happens when you are morbidly obsessed with reducing fractions. A while back I had to install a new doorknob on a closet door in my house. This meant buying one of those small, hand-held power drills, since new holes were needed for the screws that would hold the small metal dingus to the door. When I prepared to begin drilling I discovered that the five thirty-seconds bit was too fat, but the three thirty-seconds bit was too thin. So I went hunting around for the four thirty-seconds bit. Do you think I found it? Of course not, because whoever stamped the widths onto the bits came from the zombie-like, “must reduce my fractions” school of fraction manipulation, and therefore I had to find the one eighth bit. That's right! My bits were stamped in halves, fourths, eighths, sixteenths and thirty-seconds, all because of an educational system that thinks reducing fractions is an inherent good, like charity and kindness to others. Of course, as a highly trained math professional I can do these conversions in my head. But I shudder to think of all the missized holes that have been drilled in the nations door jambs over this.