A design becomes “timeless” when the problem is solves spans several generations. The need for paperclips hasn’t declined, and this is because of it’s simplicity and performance (timeless needs). I do think, however, that the car metaphor is flawed: technology is changing at such an amazing pace that within a couple of decades this might read this as discussion about what’s the best horse-drawn carriage.

The craft of programming is particularly young, I’m not sure that coding of the future will look anything like what’s done now. It has certainly changed a lot in the past 40 years. In other words: I’m not sure we will be driving cards in the future.