Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why is it hard to buy things that work well?

danluu.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

491–500 of 542 posts

Re: Why is it hard to buy things that work well?

#491

Post by asdff »

zozbot234 wrote: post #42
asdff wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheap stuff that used to be wood or metal and last for 100 years has turned into plastic cheap stuff that you write a nyt column about if it manages to survive the demands of regular expected usage for 1 year.

The wood or metal stuff was not cheap, by and large. It was the cheapest available at the time, but still very expensive by current standards.

They'd pay some people like my immigrant grand parents from europe like a few dollars a day and give them no benefits to stamp out ten thousand can openers out of some sheet metal that was probably formed into a roll locally from the steelworks up the river using regionally sourced coal and iron. How can that not be cheap?

Re: Why is it hard to buy things that work well?

#492

Post by asdff »

astrange wrote: post #158
asdff wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheap stuff that used to be wood or metal and last for 100 years has turned into plastic cheap stuff that you write a nyt column about if it manages to survive the demands of regular expected usage for 1 year.

I don't have any plastic stuff that breaks. My supposedly bad Ikea furniture has all survived 3 moves, none of my kitchen tools break, car's about to last 10+ years. I think my worst problem with something I own is my PC fans are too loud.

Really? That's surprising. I look at something wrong and the plastic part snaps in half. It's even worse if you have some plastic piece that sees regular usage in direct sunlight. The UV will make it brittle.

Re: Why is it hard to buy things that work well?

#493

Post by sn9 »

bgentry wrote: post #382
ncmncm wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't even know how I would identify a good toaster to buy, nowadays. Electric kettles are a problem, too.

After purchasing the top two Wirecutter picks for electric kettles (Cuisinart and some gooseneck kettle) both died within a year. The gooseneck one was rusted on arrival, clearly awful build quality. I decided to try paying much more for a Fellow Stagg EKG, and it was a great decision. It’s lasted over 3 years and has been an absolute joy to use compared to the prior mass market garbage. I often wish for a Wirecutter…

For kitchen stuff, America's Test Kitchen has amazing equipment reviews.

In addition to their testing process itself, they actually dogfood their advice by using their own picks in their test kitchen so they get used by tons of people way more often than any testing process could accomplish so they can get a real sense of how good a recommendation holds up over time.

Re: Why is it hard to buy things that work well?

#494

Post by QuercusMax »

ncmncm wrote: post #478
JohnBooty wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also just a... man, I don't know how to describe it. Kind of a mental benefit to using slightly nicer things. When I was young, almost everything I owned was the cheapest possible version of that thing. Everything just kind of sucked, brutally cost-optimized to the point of being somewhat nasty to use and barely functional. I was still very fortunate: I had food to eat, clothes, etc. A lot of kids in the worl…

In the US, the $95 cooker lasts no longer, and works no better, than the $25 unit. (There is no $14 one.) You might be able to do better with a Japanese brand, but it is vanishingly unlikely you will get the same one as they would have sold in Japan, unless you actually get it shipped from there. I make rice in a saucepan on the range top. I have to come back and turn it off when it's done. Otherwise, it is the same.…

I've had a Zojirushi for 20 years, and my mom has had hers for 30. Probably paid $250 when new. We use it nearly every day. My kids know how to make rice with it, and it comes out perfect every time. I wouldn't trust a ten year old to make rice on the stove, but they can do it with a rice cooker no problem.

Re: Why is it hard to buy things that work well?

#495

Post by bhelkey »

mitchdoogle wrote: post #236
Mountain_Skies wrote: post #59

Looking through old Sears catalogs and seeing the prizes on older game shows, I think some of our memory is selective. Even in photos and SD video you can see the terrible build quality on many consumer products from those earlier times. This seems to be especially true for furniture and exercise equipment. When you convert into current dollars, this low quality junk often is more expensive than what is available tod…

The idea behind the article is not that everyone is making junk these days. The idea is that we often have no way to find out which products and services are junk and which are good quality. How are you going to find a contractor to remodel your bathroom? How will you even know if they did a good job?

In the Jungle, regarding the experience of immigrants in the early 1900s, Upton Sinclair writes, "If they paid higher prices, they might get frills and fanciness, or be cheated; but genuine quality they could not obtain for love nor money."

Re: Why is it hard to buy things that work well?

#496

Post by hackernewds »

Mountain_Skies wrote: post #59

Looking through old Sears catalogs and seeing the prizes on older game shows, I think some of our memory is selective. Even in photos and SD video you can see the terrible build quality on many consumer products from those earlier times. This seems to be especially true for furniture and exercise equipment. When you convert into current dollars, this low quality junk often is more expensive than what is available tod…

Classic survivorship bias?

Re: Why is it hard to buy things that work well?

#498

Post by throwaway111023 »

kortilla wrote: post #78
throwaway111023 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

house foundations, water delivery off the top of my head, logistics in general possibly if I'm wanting to stretch the term.

Foundations change (tensioned slab, etc) and water inside of houses (copper vs pvc vs PEX vs lead). Electrical is even in frequent flux under those timescales. Insulation as well. Very little stays consistent…

Sorry, I was answering the second part 'Some have also been under continuous improvement for hundreds or thousands of years.' :)

Re: Why is it hard to buy things that work well?

#499

Post by bezospen15 »

kccqzy wrote: post #242

> An example from another industry: when I worked at a small chip startup, we had in-house capability to do end-to-end chip processing (with the exception of having its own fabs), which is unusual for a small chip startup. When the first wafer of a new design came off of a fab, we'd have the wafer flown to us on a commercial flight, at which point someone would use a wafer saw to cut the wafer into individual chips s…

Jesus Christ, everything is a metric to you product people...

Re: Why is it hard to buy things that work well?

#500

Post by dotancohen »

mkr-hn wrote: post #455
dotancohen wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, the early Model 3's had body panel fit problems. I actually bought one last week, and the fit is amazing, both interior and exterior. I don't know why that point keeps coming up. For what it's worth, I used to be a tech at a Ford dealer, so I know what bad fitment looks like!

Initial news always spreads further and faster than updates. This is normal and should have been expected by the company. They took the risk of rushing and get to suffer the consequences.

Is there any car company that has not had recalls? Toyota had airbags exploding with metal fragments, killing drivers. Yet that recall is nowhere near as well-known as Tesla body panels not lining up.
Post reply on HN