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Overkill objects for everyday life

neil.computer

31–40 of 732 posts

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#31
As an espresso enthusiast with a rather robust prosumer setup, I considered 'overkill' commercial options, which are widely available and roughly the same price (sometimes less, with work).

The overkill options...well, they're not made for home, which actually makes them worse for home use cases. Sure, a La Marzocco Linea can pull a thousand shots a day with extreme consistency and temperature stability.

My Lelit Bianca can't keep up on volume, but it is smaller, reaches operating temperature more quickly, and is temp stable for the number of shots I pull even with a dozen people over for a party. It uses a standard electrical plug, it has a consumer-grade warranty, and it's relatively easy to maintain for a regular Joe like me.

So sure, a commercial version of a thing might be more robust, longer-lasting, etc., but what tradeoffs are you making to achieve those characteristics?

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#32
post #16

Using a ka-bar for hiking is a terrible idea. At 0.7lbs it weighs as much as a quality sleeping bag/tent/pack. Also, you likely don’t need a knife. Scissors are much more useful, and micro scissors weigh less than an ounce. Ultralight hiking adds an interesting forcing function to gear - correctly “built” (as in not overbuilt or under built). Bring the gear which matches the need. In essence, the complete opposite se…

I bring a fixed blade knife hiking. Can split wood in a pinch. Not nearly as heavy as a ka-bar, though.

Your point still stands, though. I had a military pack and couldn’t believe how heavy it was even when empty. Ultralight hiking gear is pretty amazing and optimized for an entirely different goal. That said, I still feel like specialty gear like this is a different class than the average consumer stuff.. closer to industrial or military in design than Amazon junk.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#33
post #16

Using a ka-bar for hiking is a terrible idea. At 0.7lbs it weighs as much as a quality sleeping bag/tent/pack. Also, you likely don’t need a knife. Scissors are much more useful, and micro scissors weigh less than an ounce. Ultralight hiking adds an interesting forcing function to gear - correctly “built” (as in not overbuilt or under built). Bring the gear which matches the need. In essence, the complete opposite se…

I use a knife all the time while hiking - good luck cutting a salami with scissors. That said, the ka-bar is not worth the weight. I really like my benchmade hidden canyon.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#34
post #26
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. “Worse” considering the scenarios where your needs are not exactly the ones that guided project development. A simple example would be gloves. What would be the pro version of a glove? The ones used in steel mills? If you want a glove for riding a bike, you’re better of with regular biker gloves. If it’s a glove for winter, maybe skier gloves and so on.

Winter "pro" gloves are not ski gloves, even if they are used for skiing. In the French Alps, wearing gloves [1] that identify you as not a tourist is quite common. [1] https://www.deltaplus.eu/en/article-details/-/article-detail...

Those aren't waterproof - surely that matters?

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#37

"I don't think corporations/businesses are to blame... The average consumer is extremely ill-informed." This is very unfair - the average cobsumer is purposefully mislead on a daily basis, for example applle forbids apps from informing consumer that 30% of their donation to a charity is taken. With industrial goods, there is a whole department who's job is proqurement and to know what they are buying. And lets not pr…

I was surprised that the App Store would take a cut of charity donations, so I looked it up and pretty much every forum post I found says that you’re actually forbidden from collecting donations using in app purchases, and have to do so through out of band methods to get through App Review? [1]

Kind of difficult to take a cut of payments you explicitly don’t allow on your platform, isn’t it?

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/136983/would-apple...

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#39
post #4

I love to use professional-grade items where i can, but sometimes "overkill" means a worse product. like the professional-grade fan - it's not just designed for a high duty cycle, it's also probably designed to be operated in an environment where people regularly use hearing protection, so quiet operation is not a consideration.

Also, that stand mixer isn't going to fit in my kitchen cabinet. Compare that to my consumer-grade Sunbeam. It's smaller, and the top part (motor, etc.) separates from the stand part via a quick-release button, so it fits on a shelf which isn't very tall at all.

And it probably doesn’t work so well if you aren’t making enormous quantities of dough.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#40
post #34
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Winter "pro" gloves are not ski gloves, even if they are used for skiing. In the French Alps, wearing gloves [1] that identify you as not a tourist is quite common. [1] https://www.deltaplus.eu/en/article-details/-/article-detail...

Those aren't waterproof - surely that matters?

When it is below freezing, the snow isn’t very wet. You could do fine with some thick woolly gloves or mittens in those conditions too.
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