81–90 of 211 posts
Bruce Sterling said some similar stuff in the Last Viridian Note, and he said it far better: http://www.viridiandesign.org/notes/451-500/the_last_viridia... It's a little unfortunate that viridiandesign.org is basically unreadable due to that terrible background image.
The arc90 readability bookmarklet fixes it for me.
I disagree. I find this ode to consumerism quite distasteful. Sure, buy quality items if you can afford them, they'll often be worth the investment - but choosing to be frugal because of difficult financial circumstances is a good thing . Most people don't need half of what they buy. As for 'being fugal makes you a loser'; I think if the choice is being seen as a loser by the author of the article, and being broke an…
One reason his article resonates with me is because everything chosen as examples are quite personal and practical: Shoes. Bedding. Tools. Hygiene. Were he arguing that we should all purchase the newest kitchen gadgets, technical life improvement fads, or whatever, I would agree.
I'm in a state of disbelief that this is the top article on HN right now. Reading this article made me feel like I was shopping in the discount aisle of the pop-psych megalo-mart. This article is cheap shoes. It is poorly written, contains numerous abuses of the English language, and aims low at an obvious insight; the comments have been an order of magnitude more insightful. The author utterly misunderstands the mea…
I'm not sure if the author of this piece even realized his own thesis, which was basically "spend money on ergonomics" and instead he linked it together under the guise of being frugal, where frugality is a great attribute that is in reality divorced from the logic of this article.
I tend to buy in two strategies. Either so cheap but functional I don't mind throwing it out later (as eco bad as that might be), or buying good quality wares. I believe that if you can afford good quality wares, that that will both make you happier and leave you with something of substantial resale value. So it may be a better financial strategy. Compare cheap Target cabinet with "Handmade Amish Furniture." That sai…
The way I see it there is a price/value curve where it's worth buying things at both ends.
At the high end you're paying a premium but you're getting a well designed and constructed item, which should last you a long time.
At the low end you're buying cheap crap but you're paying peanuts. You know there's no high end features, that it's not well made and if it breaks you just throw it out.
But in the middle you're paying more than the cheap stuff but you're mostly still getting crap, although here's it's likely to be 'branded' crap. Same thing as the cheap stuff, just more expensive.
So buy at both ends of the scale, not in the middle: buy cheap and get what value you can out of it, buy expensive and appreciate its value for a long time.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm from the NE, and the word "frugal" does not mean the same thing here as it does in the South. As someone above said about New England, frugal is an art form here. Frugal is spending more on Calphalon cookware because you don't waste a ton of money eating out 3x a week, and want cooking gear that lasts a lifetime so you don't have to spend more money re-buying cheap stuff later.
Fair enough. Where I'm from people say "frugal" because they don't want to say "cheap" even though that would be the truth.
I mean, sometimes you need the quality part to do the job, and sometimes maintaining quality tools can even be a pleasurable experience, but recognize that there is a cost to owning stuff you can't just walk away from.
Miserly-ness is the result of something I call naive cost benefit analysis, which is an analysis that leaves out important variables.
I disagree. I find this ode to consumerism quite distasteful. Sure, buy quality items if you can afford them, they'll often be worth the investment - but choosing to be frugal because of difficult financial circumstances is a good thing . Most people don't need half of what they buy. As for 'being fugal makes you a loser'; I think if the choice is being seen as a loser by the author of the article, and being broke an…
Really? "Buy more expensive stuff, so you'll require a higher salary"? This is ridiculous.
Wow, I disagree. Starting with expensive shoes. I wear flip-flops, shorts, and a t-shirt to work everyday. I'm pretty comfortable. I don't see the correlation between expensive footwear and comfort. Beds. Yes, you spend 1/3 your life in bed. And you spend it unconscious. You spend about 0.03% of your conscious life in bed while falling asleep (30 mins a day). But more importantly: Relax. Just because you make a certa…