131–140 of 217 posts
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"Partisans of the worst will get 15 sets of cutlery (out of a bucket that’s an overflowing fucking sea of cutlery)"
A massive bucket of cutlery sounds like clutter to me.
I don't think Dustin was arguing you should spend so much money on cutlery that you worry about it getting damaged/stolen, but rather the act of thinking about what you're buying will prevent you from buying low quality and unnecessary things.
It's really quite something when an author manages to put down in words a thought or a feeling you were hitherto incapable of expressing. Bravo. The dichotomy of best/worst — or, as I often think of it, acceptable versus available — is a tricky one, and it's not one which I feel I've yet solved. But I can certainly see how areas of my life tend towards the latter. Take my dotfiles, for example. I spent ages writing a…
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I answered your question upthread.
Are you referring to "A blog network and designing websites"? Dustin had his rep before Svbtle. In the quest for determining the source of his design rep, I'm not sure Svbtle counts. As far as 'designing websites' goes, all I know of is his old blog (the AA redesign mockup). I can't find a portfolio or tweet or dribbble or github or... anything really showcasing even one thing he's designed for someone other than him…
I find the idea that Curtis is accorded a lot of respect on HN amusing, because most of what he's accorded are comments like yours.
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Two households, both alike in strength of opinion over spoons.
You're in a mood. This thread finally break you?
See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.
"Any reasonable person wouldn’t feel liberated by a $50 fork, but constrained by it. One wouldn’t be able to help but worry: is it being cared for correctly, is my friend going to mess it up when absentmindedly tapping the table with it, is it going to get dropped or stepped on if a dance party erupts in the kitchen? After all, it is the perfect fork, what if something happened to it to make it… not perfect?" This is…
It's really quite something when an author manages to put down in words a thought or a feeling you were hitherto incapable of expressing. Bravo. The dichotomy of best/worst — or, as I often think of it, acceptable versus available — is a tricky one, and it's not one which I feel I've yet solved. But I can certainly see how areas of my life tend towards the latter. Take my dotfiles, for example. I spent ages writing a…
"But to me, “simplify” is about removing clutter" ... "Partisans of the worst will get 15 sets of cutlery (out of a bucket that’s an overflowing fucking sea of cutlery)" A massive bucket of cutlery sounds like clutter to me. I don't think Dustin was arguing you should spend so much money on cutlery that you worry about it getting damaged/stolen, but rather the act of thinking about what you're buying will prevent you…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does the middle ground have to be so confusing? I mean, if you looked at your silverware and thought, "These forks are kind of ugly, and it's bothering me a little bit," so you went to Target and saw a $50 set of silverware that looked pretty okay and bought it, would that be confusing? I guess there's no way to spin it as being particularly awesome. You couldn't boast of being the most sophisticated and tasteful buy…
The problem is, if repeated often enough, this process leads to a house full of crap, most of which you no longer care about. With The Best philosophy, you have much less crap and clutter around you. With The Worst philosophy, you may have a lot of crap and clutter, but at least you didn't waste much money on it. Most of us in the rich world end up in an in between place that's not very satisfying.
So unless you buy the absolute "best" of a given product, it's just crap and couldn't possibly be satisfying? There's no middle ground there at all?
Thank 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…
1. Fork tines get bent into an uncomfortable pattern.
2. The side of a spoon accumulates rough scoring damage which is uncomfortable to the lips.
3. Bending
4. Rust
5. Breaking entirely