I'm a hypocrite. Coffee, anyone?
The Worst
61–70 of 217 posts
Re: The Worst
#62I loved this. I admit I did not read Dustin's article, but it sounds like it could have been any one of thousands of fawning techno-fetishist blog posts made over the years. I think an interesting thing that Moxie touches on tangentially, is that life does not go as planned; things break. Everything breaks, in fact. Learning to recover from failure is often more important (and personally rewarding) than learning to u…
Dustin's article was worth a read. It was as enlightening to his perspective as this article was to it's author.
Everything fails, but poorly made things fail in less predictable manners.
Really this is a false dichotomy. Anyone who always buys the best everything or the worst everything is missing a whole lot of nuance.
Re: The Worst
#63I see a difference between having the worst flatware but the best laptop (I've used Apple for over 20 years and I'm perfectly content with it). By buying a reliable brand that I have experience with, I save a bunch of time.
All in all, I agree with the OP's article.
Re: The Worst
#64Moxie,
Check out "Paradox Of Choice" by Barry Schwartz. It deals with this very subject but defines the two groups as "maximizers" and "satisficers".
Here is a good overview by the author at TED: http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_ch...
ISBN-13: 978-0060005696
V
Re: The Worst
#65This reminds me strongly of the arguments between the "Worse is Better" and "Do The Right Thing" philosophies. Buying ridiculously cheap forks so you can treat them like they're disposable is a perfect example to me of someone living out "Worse is Better".
Re: The Worst
#66Thank you. That article about "The Best" bothered me in a way I couldn't completely verbalize. Beyond a certain threshold, the quality of objects just simply doesn't matter. The example of flatware was particularly annoying, because, really, in what way does a fork ever actually "fail"? Have you ever had food halfway to your mouth when the fork just suddenly collapses or something? As a tool, flatware is completely s…
The article annoyed me, about the flatware even.
Then I remember what I went through finding 'our' flatware for the wedding registry. I'm particular about it (weight, fussiness, traditional shape). So is my wife. The intersection of that set is really small. And it most definitely doesn't include the choice that he made.
On further reflections though, it sounds as if he's becoming attached to stuff, because he's made the investment in choosing it. I'd rather not have that attachment to the stuff.
There's a small selection of things that I consciously choose the best of, and they matter. There's a much larger selection of things that are good enough, in whatever metric that is, be it quality, cost, availability, or combination. My keyboards? They're the best. Model M13s, the best of which sells for $250 on ebay. The truck? It runs. It hasn't stranded me yet, and I don't care if I haul a yard of compost in it.
Re: The Worst
#67Moxie,
I read your "Money Machine"[1] in print and loved it. After becoming aware of your security work and browsing your website, I discovered you are the author. Small world.
My partner and I often fall asleep together listening to "Letters of Insurgents". Thank you for that!
Re: The Worst
#68Thank you. That article about "The Best" bothered me in a way I couldn't completely verbalize. Beyond a certain threshold, the quality of objects just simply doesn't matter. The example of flatware was particularly annoying, because, really, in what way does a fork ever actually "fail"? Have you ever had food halfway to your mouth when the fork just suddenly collapses or something? As a tool, flatware is completely s…
I am actually watching a set of cutlery gradually failing. My company relocated, and after spending lots of money on excellent desks and office chairs, facility management bought the cheapest cutlery they could get. After less than half a year, more and more of the cutlery is getting rusty. It looks gross (is it just rust or dirt?) and makes me wonder: If the quality is so bad, can I trust it to actually be reasonabl…
Wow. I on the other hand have drinking glasses, plates and cutlery I bought from a thrift store for like $20 for the whole set and it's been holding up fine for years. Maybe the lesson here is it's better to buy a decent product for cheap used, than to buy a new product that was cheap from day one.
Re: The Worst
#69The dichotomy between Moxie and Dustin's posts illustrates an interesting split in the 'hacker' world. Wheras Hacker and Startup seemed to represent the use of unconventional tools to achieve a unexpected results (often) in unpleasant or tedious circumstances, those connotations have become mixed with the sense glamor usually reserved for celebrities. Now, the ostensibly boring (or at least detail-ridden, interesting…
Was Dustin Curtis or some company of his acquired, or is this just innuendo?
Re: The Worst
#70A large portion of the HN readership are DIRTY HIPSTERS whose support of well defined, but gimmicky ideas often leaves me at a loss for words. Much as the fork example from the article.