Static methods and data really do act as if they are part of a different class. Static data lives for the life of a program, not the life of an instance, and statics are accessible without an instance. The static portions of a class can be seen as a “staging area” for things that don’t quite belong to the class. If you see a method that doesn’t use any instance data, it is a good idea to make it static to make it noticeable until you figure out what class it really belongs on.
