Not to be negative, but what about -1 and negative many?

What about fractions, irrational number, complex numbers, infinite numbers of things?

Saying that the arbitrary set of (0,1,n > 1) has some magic general quality is misleading in my opinion.

You may as well be saying "you should think outside the box" when designing software.

It's all about the specific details, and every piece of software is full of them. The best design philosophy in my opinion is to keep your eye on the ball and focus on doing the minimum amount of effort (laziness) to do the specific job in front of you as quickly as possible (impatience).

Just my 2 grand. (hubris)

-Andrew.