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Parable of the Sofa

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Re: Parable of the Sofa

#181

Post by ghaff »

bunnie wrote: post #42

The bit about "lifestyle business" always being uttered in contempt resonated with me. I always assumed it was just me being overly sensitive to folks expressing concern over my life choices, urging me to snap out of my "mid-life crisis" and do something "useful" like raise money and scale up, or "apply myself" at famous institutions with "real impact".

I think some of it is that it can be a lifestyle business from the perspective of the owners. For employees it can mean they're getting paid below the market rates at a large company and working at least as hard. That may be a reasonable tradeoff to avoid dealing with big company BS--though possibly dealing with small company BS instead.

That may all be a reasonable tradeoff but lifestyle business does get used as a rationale for a lot of things not all of which necessarily benefit employees. (Or maybe lifestyle business just gets used for a lot of things that are only somewhat related.)

Re: Parable of the Sofa

#182

Post by frugalmail »

This sounds antagonistic and ungrateful. But capitalism offered affordable furniture that got me off the floor with pillows which many places around the world still do. And oh look, if you want that kind of furniture that has joinery, and 8 way tied coils, you buy it too, paying what the level of effort is worth which would probably be mid 5 figures instead of the low 4, or high 3.

Re: Parable of the Sofa

#183

Post by GeneralMaximus »

Micoloth wrote: post #110

Every time I read takes like this I think people forget why big brands exist? Small business (or “lifestyle business”) vs big brand is often framed about being high quality vs cheap price, because in practice it often is. But in theory the two things are completely unrelated. Yes fixing stuff is good for the planet. But big brands could offer customer service just fine if people wanted it. Small business vs big brand…

> ... either people accept the fact that some neighbourhoods are served worse than others, or the take the car and make the travel up to the nice asian shop they read about on the internet, because that’s apparently worth it.

What's better: having to do a few minutes of research to find a good sofa repair shop in your city or having to buy a new sofa every 5 years?

Further: what's better for you personally, and what's better for the planet? Are they compatible?

> But, surprise, this second option doesn't scale.

Why is it important for every type of business to scale? Is "scale" a virtue we must judge every business by?

Re: Parable of the Sofa

#184

Post by acdha »

rcxdude wrote: post #170
verisimi wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In conversation with venture capitalists, you hear the phrase “lifestyle business”, meaning one that is doing nicely and rewarding the people who run it and which isn’t planning for unbounded growth. The words “lifestyle business” are always, of course, uttered in a voice dripping with contempt. This makes me wonder what other type of business is there? How do VCs describe their business, what is their aim? Is it t…

The goal is to make a return on investment. A successful lifestyle business doesn't generally make money for investors, or at least they expect to make more money from moonshot massive growth companies. So VCs will absolutely kill a potential or existing small, sustainable company for a chance at a billion-dollar company, even if the odds are tiny. For the founders, a lifestyle business is generally a better option,…

Also VCs and PE do not care long-term beyond the time when they cash out. If you’re building the business, you probably will care longer, especially about what happens to the people you hired and worked with.

Re: Parable of the Sofa

#185

Post by crazygringo »

wazoox wrote: post #125
contrarian1234 wrote: post #51

If you get out of the US bubble, the prices are simply insane fix a sofa: it's equivalent to a month's salary/stipend here in Asia. 200 bowls of noodle (if it's a cheap noodle then it's more like 500) new sofa: "new leather sofas of the “not flat-packed sawdust and glue” variety quickly get into five figures" So like a year's worth of stipend/expenses Could be that just the US dollar is crazy - but until the economic…

The problem is that you're talking of massively freeloading social an environmental costs of humongous size onto other people and places. Sure, "flatpack sawdust and glue" furniture made by slave labour while destroying rainforests and dumping toxic waste is cheap for you and right now ... But that can't last and won't last.

Sofa manufacture is not what's destroying rainforests or dumping toxic waste.

And "flatpack sawdust" is better for the environment, actually -- where do you think all those leftover wood scraps would be going if they weren't mixed with glue and used productively?

If you want to be using solid pieces of wood in everything, that's a lot more trees you're going to have to cut down.

Re: Parable of the Sofa

#186

Post by marcinzm »

contrarian1234 wrote: post #51

If you get out of the US bubble, the prices are simply insane fix a sofa: it's equivalent to a month's salary/stipend here in Asia. 200 bowls of noodle (if it's a cheap noodle then it's more like 500) new sofa: "new leather sofas of the “not flat-packed sawdust and glue” variety quickly get into five figures" So like a year's worth of stipend/expenses Could be that just the US dollar is crazy - but until the economic…

The median household income in the US is $76k ($57k post taxes). Germany is $54k ($34k post taxes). China is $13k.

Even compared to Europe the amount of money for spending a US household gets is almost twice as much. There's more expenses due to a lack of a social net however those aren't constant over time unlike taxes. One year you spend $5k for medical bills and the next you spend $5k on a new Sofa.

Re: Parable of the Sofa

#187

Post by setgree »

GeneralMaximus wrote: post #183
Micoloth wrote: post #110

Every time I read takes like this I think people forget why big brands exist? Small business (or “lifestyle business”) vs big brand is often framed about being high quality vs cheap price, because in practice it often is. But in theory the two things are completely unrelated. Yes fixing stuff is good for the planet. But big brands could offer customer service just fine if people wanted it. Small business vs big brand…

> ... either people accept the fact that some neighbourhoods are served worse than others, or the take the car and make the travel up to the nice asian shop they read about on the internet, because that’s apparently worth it. What's better: having to do a few minutes of research to find a good sofa repair shop in your city or having to buy a new sofa every 5 years? Further: what's better for you personally, and what'…

https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2010/07/19/stupidity-scales/

> We can’t use common sense because it doesn’t fit on a form.

> We can’t use a simple approach to solve the problem in front of us unless the same approach would also work on a problem 100x larger that we may never have.

> If the smart thing to do doesn’t scale, maybe we shouldn’t scale.

Re: Parable of the Sofa

#188

Post by switch007 »

moffkalast wrote: post #108
contrarian1234 wrote: post #51

If you get out of the US bubble, the prices are simply insane fix a sofa: it's equivalent to a month's salary/stipend here in Asia. 200 bowls of noodle (if it's a cheap noodle then it's more like 500) new sofa: "new leather sofas of the “not flat-packed sawdust and glue” variety quickly get into five figures" So like a year's worth of stipend/expenses Could be that just the US dollar is crazy - but until the economic…

Along the same line it's always interesting to see Americans discuss mattress prices, it's always like "yeah best pay 4-6k at least and they're swapping the names and reviews so there's no way to tell if you're getting a quality product regardless" meanwhile I paid like 250 euros for a locally made memory foam mattress that's a dream (ha) to sleep on. Post-socialist countries still have an absolute shit ton of these…

I feel the same when they talk about renovations. "thank god the kitchen only came to $45k", "the bathroom remodel was only $30k", "the new fence was $20k, not too bad". I know the have bigger spaces but... damn.

Re: Parable of the Sofa

#189

Post by geokon »

bunnie wrote: post #42

The bit about "lifestyle business" always being uttered in contempt resonated with me. I always assumed it was just me being overly sensitive to folks expressing concern over my life choices, urging me to snap out of my "mid-life crisis" and do something "useful" like raise money and scale up, or "apply myself" at famous institutions with "real impact".

Damn. I wouldn't expect that pressure give your rep. Is this from people in the industry, or people outside that don't get it?

In all honestly, to me you are one of the few people that come to my mind when I think of someone working on a project that's tangible and with "real impact". Precursor is so out of the box and cyberpunk and outside the confines of what institutions are working on

Hope in the future you get the support and validation that you should be getting

Re: Parable of the Sofa

#190

Post by rcpt »

contrarian1234 wrote: post #51

If you get out of the US bubble, the prices are simply insane fix a sofa: it's equivalent to a month's salary/stipend here in Asia. 200 bowls of noodle (if it's a cheap noodle then it's more like 500) new sofa: "new leather sofas of the “not flat-packed sawdust and glue” variety quickly get into five figures" So like a year's worth of stipend/expenses Could be that just the US dollar is crazy - but until the economic…

Yeah but sounds like this guy has owned a house in Canada for the past 25 years
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