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The bewildering phenomenon of declining quality

english.elpais.com

101–110 of 824 posts

Re: The bewildering phenomenon of declining quality

#101
Some counterpoints: Apple devices of today are of near perfect quality with almost no mechanical, electronic, or software quirks. Gone are the days of keyboards that got stuck after a month of use, cables that wore down in a month too, phones you had to hold in a particular way or they lost signal, useless Maps app forced upon you, phones that bent in the pocket, exploding batteries, endless shit like that. Sure we continued loving Apple through all this, but by about 2020 or so, everyone who wasn't an Apple fan started to kinda see us like we all see Trump's fans, sorta... It was hard to justify for any person outside of the Apple bubble.

Another counterpoint: hotel quality has arguably improved a great lot in the last 10 year or so. Especially, after Covid. That's rather perplexing, especially since airlines are going in the opposite direction while they two are usually a part of the same purchase by the same people and logically i'd expect their trajectories to be similar.

Bigger counterpoint: cars. 10-year old electric cars today drive like new because well, there's nothing to wear out there. Our kids will see lots of 40-50 year old cars on roads, with completely worn out interiors but still driving just fine. Probably with batteries replaced once or twice thus driving a lot better than when they were new because 2035 batteries will have a lot higher density, C-ratings, and will heat less than 2015 batteries, and replacement will cost less than replacement of a gearbox on a 2015 Volvo goofed up by incompetent servicemen.

Re: The bewildering phenomenon of declining quality

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised. What is the objective aspect of quality? Can you have quality without a human-intended purpose?

It’s worth noting that the author of Zen and the Art literally went crazy in pursuit of this. I don’t mean this to say “you have asked a bad question”, but rather to say, “you have asked so large a question that a man once went insane in trying to answer it.”

>Pirsig had a mental breakdown and spent time in and out of psychiatric hospitals between 1961 and 1963. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and treated with electroconvulsive therapy on numerous occasions

>Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values is a book by Robert M. Pirsig first published in 1974.

I'm afraid you're romanticizing the relationship between Pirsig's books and his life. That someone is losing touch with reality doesn't warrant anyone to deconstruct their biography at will and reconstruct it to suit their own narrative.

Re: The bewildering phenomenon of declining quality

#104
post #53
post #24

I'm not sure if this is quite related, but I can't help but feel that a lot of the ills of society that we're witnessing is simply coming down to the fact that we're living a lot longer as people. I feel like knowing that we might live well-beyond our working age has caused all sorts of odd/irrational behaviours in the way we approach life. I think for example, having to save for retirement makes us rethink how we sp…

Have you considered that it's not that we are spending money on cheap stuff, it's that even expensive stuff is built to not last with the incentive you come back for more? You do realize there are whole R&D departments working on planned obsolescence. - Apple's planned obsolescence on batteries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batterygate - Window's 10 to 11 garbage hardware requirements: https://www.euroconsumers.org/…

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Re: The bewildering phenomenon of declining quality

#105
post #98

Most of the people on this board are upper middle to lower upper class (thinking American, apologies to my non US friends). Such people can afford products outside the grasp of most Americans. What naturally happens to such products is that the manufacturers find a way to broaden their customer base. They find ways to bring the price point down so they can sell more. For most people this is a boon. They can afford a…

The parable of boots seems apt here. In the extreme, expensive pair can last for a decade while people who can only afford the cheap pair will have to keep buying a new one every year.

Yes, the fact that any family can afford a new shelving unit is great! But the fact that it’ll last them just a few years is not good; they’ll spend more in the long run

Re: The bewildering phenomenon of declining quality

#106

"Following his reasoning, it cannot be stated in absolute terms that an iPhone 15 is of “better quality” than a 2003 Nokia." This statement suffers from either viewing the past through rose-tinted glasses or from total cultural relativism in the most pejorative sense. I'm not sure about 2003, but around 2009, I owned a Nokia N900, which was arguably the flagship Nokia phone at the time. I can confidently state that c…

I googled the author's name and from a cursory look at his linkedin he was a toddler in 2003. It’s therefore reasonable to conclude that he has no idea how a phone from 2003 worked. I mean, he could’ve used one for a bit, but definitely not as a daily driver.

Re: The bewildering phenomenon of declining quality

#107
post #4

> clothes are unrecognizable after the second wash What clothes are these? I don't buy any kind of expensive brands. I don't take any care when washing. I don't own a lot of clothes so I wear each item weekly. And my clothes last me for several years at least. The dyes have gotten noticeably better than when I was a child - when was the last time you had colors run in the wash?

Shein crap falls apart in the first wash

Re: The bewildering phenomenon of declining quality

#108

"Following his reasoning, it cannot be stated in absolute terms that an iPhone 15 is of “better quality” than a 2003 Nokia." This statement suffers from either viewing the past through rose-tinted glasses or from total cultural relativism in the most pejorative sense. I'm not sure about 2003, but around 2009, I owned a Nokia N900, which was arguably the flagship Nokia phone at the time. I can confidently state that c…

I owned a Nokia in 2003. The battery lasted a week and they were virtually indestructible. The phone never crashed or reset, the keys were so reliable and well placed that I could text without looking at the screen. The phone did not get slower with age. None of these things can be said about my current smart phone. Granted it does a lot more, but the quality of the things it does do is much worse.

Re: The bewildering phenomenon of declining quality

#110

Quality has improved across many dimensions in nearly every domain I’m familiar with. In fact, I’d argue there are very few products or services that couldn’t be made today to a higher standard than at any point in the past, if we chose to prioritize that. But what’s often mistaken for a decline in quality is really a shift in priorities: toward affordability, efficiency, and accessibility. And that’s fantastic. Prod…

Thos who think quality has decreased should watch this youtube shorts channel.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LqnWuMD6DU8

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