61–70 of 542 posts
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I'm planning to buy a house in the next year or two. I would 100% hire this guy as the inspector if I knew who he was. Those photos are more effective than any marketing.
The imgur account name is the business name, Alpha Structural: https://www.yelp.com/biz/alpha-structural-los-angeles-8
I think it's that you don't notice things that work well. House foundations, light switches, filesystems, silicon manufacturing, water delivery, grocery store logistics, etc etc etc. These are all things that most people never notice because they just work. It doesn't even occur to people day-to-day that these things can fail.
As usual its just how much money you put in to it. We spend a lot of money making sure building foundations and silicon manufacturing works because failing is expensive and dangerous. I don't want to pay double/triple price for a toaster to slightly reduce its risk of failing because I'm happy to accept that on average it lasts a long time but there is some chance it fails sooner. If I'm in charge of buying a $100M b…
These things did cost a lot to develop, but for the consumer it’s quite inexpensive. As GP said, we just take these things for granted and don’t notice them.
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Cheap stuff that used to be wood or metal and last for 100 years has turned into plastic cheap stuff that you write a nyt column about if it manages to survive the demands of regular expected usage for 1 year.
The wood or metal stuff was not cheap, by and large. It was the cheapest available at the time, but still very expensive by current standards.
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I think there's a reason why that's a comedy film instead of a serious take on modern consumerism. We have plenty of "indestructible" tools today. Cast Iron skillets, hammers, screwdrivers, wrenches, ladders. Most furniture qualifies as well (though MDF-board crap exists, they still have a use. Its more efficient for a college-student to get disposable MDF-based crap for their dorms with a lifespan of ~4 years or les…
I'm amazed at how they keep trying to reinvent hammers. I have two. One good old one with a wooden handle and a steel head, and one with a super-ergonomic rubber/metal handle and a smaller, treated steel head. They both bang nails and both feel alright. If I need to wield one for hours, I can see the rubber handle being better, but I'll wear gloves if it's an issue with the other. Rubber handle will likely last < 20…
I always enjoy danluu's blog; one of the few I have bookmarked and go randomly read from time to time. Some random comments on out-of-context snippets: > For example, we tried "buy" instead of "build" for a product that syncs data from Postgres to Snowflake. ... Despite being widely recommended and the leading product in the space, the product has a number of major design flaws that mean that it literally cannot work…
But most enterprise software is plumbing - that you figure out how to use “well enough” and mostly leave it alone to do its thing. That software has little pressure and often ends up being basically bypassed.
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Looks good on my phone. I guess not all writers are poets. What did you think of the content of what they said?
It's hard to appreciate the content when you can't get through the wrapping.
... or things that work at all? (eg humidifiers, at various price points, maybe 40% of which are even functional when first unboxed)
Because we have unreasonable expectations. Making things work well is hard, and thus expensive. Take a chair, for example. Anyone can make a chair: just get a bucket, turn it over, and sit on it. Boom; backless chair. Want a backrest, arms? Get a 2x4, a saw, a drill, and some bolts. An hour later: Boom; chair. You want a chair that works well? How do you even define works well for a chair? Do you need cushioning? Do…
an aeron chair costs about $2000 dollars (give or take). The construction is sturdy, so i expect it to last at least 10 years, if not 20 (you take care of it etc). So the amortized cost is some 100-200 dollars a year for an excellent chair. If you buy a crappy chair, i bet that the cushion starts failing after a year or so of constant sitting. So you'd probably replace it yearly, or suffer a bad chair for a few years…
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I think there's a reason why that's a comedy film instead of a serious take on modern consumerism. We have plenty of "indestructible" tools today. Cast Iron skillets, hammers, screwdrivers, wrenches, ladders. Most furniture qualifies as well (though MDF-board crap exists, they still have a use. Its more efficient for a college-student to get disposable MDF-based crap for their dorms with a lifespan of ~4 years or les…
I'm amazed at how they keep trying to reinvent hammers. I have two. One good old one with a wooden handle and a steel head, and one with a super-ergonomic rubber/metal handle and a smaller, treated steel head. They both bang nails and both feel alright. If I need to wield one for hours, I can see the rubber handle being better, but I'll wear gloves if it's an issue with the other. Rubber handle will likely last < 20…
When doing roofing the experienced guys would have three or four hammers of various types and switch between them as necessary. Me? I couldn’t tell the difference.