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Amazon Dash Button

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Re: Amazon Dash Button

#511

this actually reminds me a bit of the amazon echo in that it is completely and totally household dependent. i have an echo and think it's completely amazing. my friend, basically has siri in his pocket and doesn't understand my crazy-love. the difference is that he's a single guy with his own apartment who always has his phone or computer within reach. i'm not. my house is a family of four (me, the beautiful wife, a…

> but having a free, physical button that magically reorders trash bags or detergent or paper towels placed in the very location where you would consume such things? magical! I don't get it. I keep tens of such things in my kitchen alone (paper towels, napkins, dish sponges, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, etc, etc). Does anyone really want a bank of these buttons lined up inside each cabinet? Wouldn't it be about 1000x…

more convenient? no.

i would certainly rather have a small bank of interchangeable buttons for the 1/2 dozen items below my sink (dishwasher pods, 408, windex, sponges, trash bags, dish soap) than having to (with wet hands) find my phone/app/screen/button/click. those, of course, would be different than the small bank of buttons near the shelf in the garage. which would be different than the small bank of buttons in the laundry room.

would it make the inside of the sink cabinet door nicer-looking to have an app in my pocket? probably. also, this isn't a zero-sum thing. we can have both!

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#512
post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. This is truly great design thinking. But wait, how do you handle nudists?

I'm trying to make a haiku something like this: Out of clean clothes today, Also laundry detergent, Imagine surprise face on UPS man when I open door.

Never again ask Alexa,

"Get me some clean clothes!"

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#513

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's why people do it... If you have something you like, it's frequently easier not to have to rethink the purchase decision every time. We have finite attention spans. We can spend it on price shopping staples, or programming, or being with our families. For many people, the $10/order of rethinking prices isn't worth the hassle of 15 minutes and uncertainty in a less important decision. They'd rather invest the ti…

There are people (perhaps not the denizens of HN who make high 5/low 6 figure salaries) who are very sensitive to price. This really screws them.

There are also people who make $70/hour who will spend 100 hours price shopping to save $200 on a stroller. Time is finite and valuable. You shouldn't walk away from every financial decision, but the small ones aren't worth worrying about.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#514

Was ever a product more obviously invented by someone without children?

i suspect you don't actually have children.

as a parent, the places these buttons would need to be for me are already child-proofed. if it's sitting next to where i keep my laundry detergent, that space is already child-proofed. if it's under the sink next to my bottle of 409, it's already child-proofed.

know what i mean?

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's why people do it... If you have something you like, it's frequently easier not to have to rethink the purchase decision every time. We have finite attention spans. We can spend it on price shopping staples, or programming, or being with our families. For many people, the $10/order of rethinking prices isn't worth the hassle of 15 minutes and uncertainty in a less important decision. They'd rather invest the ti…

It most certainly is "easier" to not negotiate to get the best value for your money. Businesses love taking your money, especially if you give them extra. Hell, I like it when my customers do this too. >For many people, the $10/order of rethinking prices isn't worth the hassle of 15 minutes and uncertainty in a less important decision. I'll just put this here: http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-09-30/consumer-…

You're putting words into my mouth. Consumer debt is another thing entirely.

It's much more time efficient not to sweat every financial detail. Save time for the big ones. (Mortgage rates, negotiating cards, optimizing debt, making investment choices, etc)

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#516

Harper's Magazine, September 1996: > From an interview with Kurt Vonnegut in the November 1995 issue of Inc. Technology. Vonnegut was asked to discuss his feelings about living in an increasingly computerized world. >> I work at home, and if I wanted to, I could have a computer right by my bed, and I'd never have to leave it. But I use a typewriter, and afterward I mark up the pages with a pencil. Then I call up this…

I wish my errands were that eventful, but they just feel like chores. Give me a button to press away my chores and I'll spend my outgoing time at the pub with friends.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#520

Harper's Magazine, September 1996: > From an interview with Kurt Vonnegut in the November 1995 issue of Inc. Technology. Vonnegut was asked to discuss his feelings about living in an increasingly computerized world. >> I work at home, and if I wanted to, I could have a computer right by my bed, and I'd never have to leave it. But I use a typewriter, and afterward I mark up the pages with a pencil. Then I call up this…

I wish my errands were that eventful, but they just feel like chores. Give me a button to press away my chores and I'll spend my outgoing time at the pub with friends.

> I wish my errands were that eventful, but they just feel like chores.

Keep in mind the excerpt you just read was written by a professional writer. A good one at that. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's got a quality where even if nobody told you it was written by a writer, you could just tell.

No flowery prose. Just simple description. But highlighting many little things and quirks that most people leave out of descriptions of events. Without those, his errand reads a bit like this: "I write on a typewriter. When I'm done I mark it up in pencil, then I ask a freelance typist if she's got time to do a clean manuscript for me. Then I have to go down to the newsstand to buy an envelope to send it off in. I like the roundabout way of doing it"

Not quite as fun is it?

edit: the style reminds me a lot of reading Gaiman's blogposts about his life

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