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Why is it hard to buy things that work well?

danluu.com

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

#51

Post by zozbot234 »

jrockway wrote: post #19

I always enjoy danluu's blog; one of the few I have bookmarked and go randomly read from time to time. Some random comments on out-of-context snippets: > For example, we tried "buy" instead of "build" for a product that syncs data from Postgres to Snowflake. ... Despite being widely recommended and the leading product in the space, the product has a number of major design flaws that mean that it literally cannot work…

> having ever locked down was stupid, we were always going to end up with endemic covid

COVID lock down/shelter in place orders were never intended to avoid endemic disease altogether. They were about slowing down its spread just enough that the healthcare system would remain functional while the disease became endemic. And they mostly worked OK for that.

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

#52

Post by bombcar »

______-_-______ wrote: post #48
Swizec wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look up "Things seen this week during structural inspections!" on imgur. Some truly horrifying stuff from that person. For some of these foundations to still be standing and building occupants not to notice anything's wrong ... I can't even imagine how much safety factor is built-in. If we built software with those margins, nothing would ever ship. Here's a few: https://imgur.com/gallery/Ko2jo4j https://imgur.com/gal…

I'm planning to buy a house in the next year or two. I would 100% hire this guy as the inspector if I knew who he was. Those photos are more effective than any marketing.

You’ll love https://structuretech.com/category/newconstruction/ them where issues are found at new construction.

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

#53

Post by ryanchants »

______-_-______ wrote: post #48
Swizec wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look up "Things seen this week during structural inspections!" on imgur. Some truly horrifying stuff from that person. For some of these foundations to still be standing and building occupants not to notice anything's wrong ... I can't even imagine how much safety factor is built-in. If we built software with those margins, nothing would ever ship. Here's a few: https://imgur.com/gallery/Ko2jo4j https://imgur.com/gal…

I'm planning to buy a house in the next year or two. I would 100% hire this guy as the inspector if I knew who he was. Those photos are more effective than any marketing.

The imgur account name is the business name, Alpha Structural: https://www.yelp.com/biz/alpha-structural-los-angeles-8

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

#54

Post by nullc »

user3939382 wrote: post #14

Consumers have by and large come to believe that price matters more than anything, so the free market economy of goods has naturally optimized for that priority.

If you can't know that it'll be good or even if it'll work (at least more than the minimum time) -- then it darn well better be inexpensive.

Inexpensive and having a snazzy name are pretty much the only properties that products have that you can reliably compare.

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

#55

Post by SquibblesRedux »

mlanett2 wrote: post #30

This article is long but excellent. It is something of a rant rather than an article. Still excellent.

I would like to see the essay revisited in a more cogent way. There are massive differences between local business disappointments and global business disappointments. The essay is too unfocused to draw actionable conclusions and would benefit greatly from concentrating on more specific issues. I would recommend focusing on one specific point of advice and tailoring everything to support that one point.

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

#56

Post by asdfaoeu »

giantg2 wrote: post #38
yrral wrote: post #16

I think it's that you don't notice things that work well. House foundations, light switches, filesystems, silicon manufacturing, water delivery, grocery store logistics, etc etc etc. These are all things that most people never notice because they just work. It doesn't even occur to people day-to-day that these things can fail.

Many of those things mentioned have changed very little in decades. Some have also been under continuous improvement for hundreds or thousands of years.

I think that just shows that these things take time but the process does work.

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

#57

Post by bombcar »

chii wrote: post #44
0xbadcafebee wrote: post #2

Because we have unreasonable expectations. Making things work well is hard, and thus expensive. Take a chair, for example. Anyone can make a chair: just get a bucket, turn it over, and sit on it. Boom; backless chair. Want a backrest, arms? Get a 2x4, a saw, a drill, and some bolts. An hour later: Boom; chair. You want a chair that works well? How do you even define works well for a chair? Do you need cushioning? Do…

an aeron chair costs about $2000 dollars (give or take). The construction is sturdy, so i expect it to last at least 10 years, if not 20 (you take care of it etc). So the amortized cost is some 100-200 dollars a year for an excellent chair. If you buy a crappy chair, i bet that the cushion starts failing after a year or so of constant sitting. So you'd probably replace it yearly, or suffer a bad chair for a few years…

This is the Sam Vimes economic theory.

But there’s a corollary - if you do not need the thing to last, you may be better off with the cheapest one you can find (which may be used - and which may be better than new).

This is the “but it from harbor freight, if it breaks now you know you use it enough to make it worth getting a good one”.

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

#58

Post by thrill »

t-writescode wrote: post #10
zabzonk wrote: post #8

> Why is it hard to buy things that work well? Asks someone that posts a giant wall of unreadable text.

Looks good on my phone. I guess not all writers are poets. What did you think of the content of what they said?

It's hard to appreciate the content when you can't get through the wrapping.

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

#59

Post by Mountain_Skies »

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 today. There's plenty of junk being sold today too and paying more doesn't guarantee quality but the notion that it's more difficult to find quality today than in the past doesn't seem universal. We have plenty of items that survived earlier eras and are examples of durability but the landfills are full of junk that we don't see.

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

#60

Post by analog31 »

traceddd wrote: post #21
justbrandon2u wrote: post #13

Because china. Things used to be good 20 or 30 years ago. Then china started in with all that cheap crap. Same shit going on with India in the software space. Just look at oracle. Tot shit.

Every sale has a customer.

Not every customer can assess the quality of a product. I can judge the quality of a violin, but I can't tell you how long the compressor in a refrigerator will last.
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