My Dad used to tinker with his car, meaning "herumbasteln"....he wasn't always really SURE about what he was doing.

Webster's
Main Entry: 1tin·ker
Pronunciation: 'ti[ng]-k&r
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English tinkere
1 a : a usually itinerant mender of household utensils b : an unskillful mender : BUNGLER

pfuschen

Ich glaube es geht viel mehr in Richtung basteln als pfuschen, cf. Siehe Wörterbuch: tinker

i imagine the word pfuschen is probably appropriate if the speaker would like to convey that rather than the grand design - many accidental coincidences of nature etc. guided the presumed 'grand design'... let me tell you in art many 'flaws and accidents' often turn out to be the genius part of say a picture...

that is the problem with translation - to understand what is meant in the first place... nigh impossible to interpret sentences out of context.. as usual...

ho hum...

kirsten - that's what I've been thinking too - no grand design but step by step 'improvement' (according to stepwise changing selection pressures) - "pfuschen" seemed to negative to me.

@holger - i see your point - however, the concept of basteln = which is an activity does not sit easily with me - it smacks of intervention, rather than accidental happenings as well as selectivity based on various advantageous attributes for survival... which is more kind of a melee..

ah well.. someone else will have the answer..

thanks anyway h.

Siehe related discussion

Weitere Alternative für rumbasteln...

als weitere Alternative.

vielleicht ginge auch noch: "herumwursteln, (herum-)werkeln"

Verwendung in aktuellem Buch von Beinhocker "Wealth Creation": deductive tinkering.
Meint Deduktives Ausprobieren (im Sinne von try and error)

I just came accross an article in edge.org online magazine where the author has described progress as mainly induced by 'stochastic tinkering' versus 'grand design', theory driven approaches.

He even tried to seperate US vs. European culture in terms of 'tinkering' and 'academic', 'theoretical' and 'empiric'.

It is noteworthy that all the German verbs like 'basteln, friemeln, schrauben, fummeln' have a negative connotation. They describe work performed by amateurs if not dabblers.

In IT, we often see the self-proclaimed pros denounce their competitors as 'Bastler'. In a standard sales pitch the sales rep may ask the customer whether he wants the (expensive) professional system or the 'Bastelsystem' (usually nobody wants the latter).

The most neutral translation seems to be '(aus-)probieren', with 'herumprobieren' introducing some stochastic element.

creation of improvised structures by appropraiting pre-existing materials which are ready-to-hand

difference to an engineer, who strives for perfection and has professional means at hand

bricolage is marked by limited possibilities and a creative process of trial and error

"The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to keep all the pieces."

Denke das passt recht gut...

oder bildlich: wenn man die Evolution als holprigen Weg versteht

<<Longevity has many reasons, e.g. healthy lifestyle, not smoking or drinking too much alkohol, education, wealth, etc..>>
But all this is tinkering ath the edges. Mankind's dream has been to conquer ageing altogether, and scientists are working on it. (from: special report "The Economist" June 27th-July 3rd 2009, p.7)

Soll meiner Auffassung im Wesentlichen heißen, dass das Kernziel die Ausschaldung des Alterungsprozesses ist, und jegliche Verlängerung der der Langlebigkeit lediglich "Friemelie am Rande" darstellt.

[Longevity has many reasons, e.g. healthy lifestyle, not smoking or drinking too much alkohol, education, wealth, etc..]
But all this is tinkering ath the edges. Mankind's dream has been to conquer ageing altogether, and scientists are working on it. (from: special report "The Economist" June 27th-July 3rd 2009, p.7)

Soll meiner Auffassung im Wesentlichen heißen, dass das Kernziel die Ausschaldung des Alterungsprozesses ist, und jegliche Verlängerung der der Langlebigkeit lediglich "Friemelie am Rande" darstellt.

At other times, Luther pasted the wings of a wasp on top of a fly's own wings to improve its aerodynamics. Or he made one wing slightly shorter than the other so it would fly in circles the rest of its life.
It was just this side of Luther, his quirky TINKERING, that left people with a lingering uneasiness about wheter he might one day pour his bottle of poison into Svannah's water supply.
[Midnigh in the garden of good and evil, Paperback, July 1999, S.67]