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Shaving is an example of how consumer products extract more money

johnwhiles.com

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Re: Shaving is an example of how consumer products extract more money

#951

Post by mcronce »

soylentgraham wrote: post #818
mcronce wrote: post #795

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having used both, one is no more "brainless" than the other. It's the same shaving process. The only difference is cost.

I couldn't tell you why, but I have almost never cut myself, and never get nicks, ingrowing hair, razor burn etc with a safety razor. I maybe over-used the other razors (only 15 shaves!?)... and maybe with an exposed blade Im more careful (I really dont think so)... but i never went back. Far more precision too! Definitely not the same thing for me

Yep - I never really have an issue with a safety razor. At least, not on my face...the one time I tried to shave my head with it I looked like some shit out of Hellraiser until I showered haha

Re: Shaving is an example of how consumer products extract more money

#952

Post by tekknik »

oblio wrote: post #755
mcronce wrote: post #749

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, in what universe are those expensive multi-blade razors faster or more convenient than a safety razor with a Feather blade?

The world where I want my shaving to be brainless.

Then why not go electric? Something like a one blade or more proper electric razor reduces cutting hazards and still gets it pretty close.

Re: Shaving is an example of how consumer products extract more money

#953

Post by tekknik »

grumple wrote: post #830
mcronce wrote: post #795

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having used both, one is no more "brainless" than the other. It's the same shaving process. The only difference is cost.

With a safety razor I get way more cuts, bumps, and the occasional slice of my thumb... and I'm still tossing the blade. With multi-blade cartidges, I shave faster and with less pain for only marginally more waste (and much greater cost, though trivial).

It’s not so much about tossing the blade, it’s about tossing a blade made mostly from plastic.

Re: Shaving is an example of how consumer products extract more money

#954

Post by jimmaswell »

mgraczyk wrote: post #690
jimmaswell wrote: post #684

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cast iron becomes very low maintenance after the seasoning is started. I don't even usually wash mine. Everything slides right off at the end. Just let it heat up before using it, use a moderately high heat but not too high, and it's a nonstick pan without the carcinogens.

> Just let it heat up before using it No lol that's the whole point > without the carcinogens. I'll take that trade, I'm not going to spend my 30s sitting around waiting for pans to heat up because there's some very small probability a pan will harm me.

If 30 seconds is too much for you then I don't know what to say. Good luck in life; you're going to need it.

Re: Shaving is an example of how consumer products extract more money

#955

Post by tekknik »

mgraczyk wrote: post #716
hn_version_0023 wrote: post #712

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cook with cast iron constantly, and I don’t recall sitting around and waiting for the pan to heat. I do other related cooking tasks while the pans heat. There’s really never a point where I’m doing nothing waiting on the pan. Mise en place helps immensely!

This is also exactly what I'm pointing out. You enjoy cooking, you have other "cooking related tasks", you gather your ingredients before cooking. You have skill and a plan. I just want to eat and I want to get that out of the way as quickly as possible. For a nice meal, I'll go to a restaurant. I'm not interested in learning how to prepare my own food better, and all of these comments and the OP seems to forget that…

> I just want to eat and I want to get that out of the way as quickly as possible. For a nice meal, I'll go to a restaurant. I'm not interested in learning how to prepare my own food better, and all of these comments and the OP seems to forget that.

> You have cooking, I have coffee, programming, and looking at birds.

I used to be like this, eat as quickly as I could and whatever was quick enough that filled the hole in my stomach. You will likely pay for this later, and will have discussions with your dr about food freshness, processed foods and how horrible the food at even “heath food” restaurants is for you. Unless you want to live your life with gastrointestinal issues, change your attitude about cooking.

Re: Shaving is an example of how consumer products extract more money

#956

Post by tekknik »

mgraczyk wrote: post #786
jjfoooo4 wrote: post #776

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what are you cooking where there’s no other related prep? If you’re using a pan and not a microwave surely there’s a minute or two of work to do.

Crack two eggs into a pan, sprinkle cheese on top, put a lid on top, wait 2 minutes. Serve with hot sauce. Cheap and delicious.

And not nutritionally complete. No fiber, processed cheese, and what kind of eggs?

Re: Shaving is an example of how consumer products extract more money

#957

Post by mgraczyk »

tekknik wrote: post #955
mgraczyk wrote: post #716

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is also exactly what I'm pointing out. You enjoy cooking, you have other "cooking related tasks", you gather your ingredients before cooking. You have skill and a plan. I just want to eat and I want to get that out of the way as quickly as possible. For a nice meal, I'll go to a restaurant. I'm not interested in learning how to prepare my own food better, and all of these comments and the OP seems to forget that…

> I just want to eat and I want to get that out of the way as quickly as possible. For a nice meal, I'll go to a restaurant. I'm not interested in learning how to prepare my own food better, and all of these comments and the OP seems to forget that. > You have cooking, I have coffee, programming, and looking at birds. I used to be like this, eat as quickly as I could and whatever was quick enough that filled the hole…

Nah, I'm extremely healthy. Very careful about what I eat and I exercise every day. It's super easy to eat both fast and healthy, it just costs more.

Re: Shaving is an example of how consumer products extract more money

#958

Post by MereInterest »

theroncross wrote: post #924
MereInterest wrote: post #845

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My hair is pretty coarse, so I needed to experiment around for a while before finding something that worked. The main issues that caused nicks and razor burn for me were as follows. * Overly frequent shaving. If I shave every day, I will get nicks and ingrown hairs, regardless of technique. After I shave, the skin slightly closes up around the follicle. Not enough to be fully ingrown, but enough that there's a bump o…

The other piece of this is that there are a wide variety of safety razor blades. You should get a variety pack if you make the switch until you find what works best. Some are very sharp (which actually isn't always good), some less so. Some are more flexible than others. You need to find one that fits your skin and hair.

Good point, and I failed to mention that as part of the experimenting. After going through the variety pack, I ended up finding that Astra Stainless were the best for my skin/hair combination, and Astra Platinum was second.

Re: Shaving is an example of how consumer products extract more money

#959

Post by betwixthewires »

massysett wrote: post #916
betwixthewires wrote: post #789

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I disagree. Life is better without disposable products. Life is better with less things in general. I use almost no disposable products. I think the disposable products I do use once, would be floss picks and fuel for the car. I even avoid buying trash bags and just reuse grocery bags. My carbon footprint is on the order of a village dweller from a third world country, and I don't even do it because of my carbon…

You consume grocery bags, you dispose of trash, you buy floss picks, and you put fuel into a car, and those things alone put you way above a village dweller from a third world country, who buys no floss picks, owns no car, puts no fuel into a car, and does not buy groceries at a market that hands out bags.

I use on the order of a half gallon of gas a month. I'd say a village dweller has a larger carbon footprint in firewood alone.

I re-use grocery bags for trash and use no trash bags. I reuse any disposable plastic I can, at least once. That cut's my plastic output roughly in half compared to other people around me.

I've taken to using a water pick now, so a bag of those picks takes me maybe a year to use. That's miniscule.

I don't know if you've ever been to a third world country, but plastic bags even at small street shops are all the rage. I probably dispose of less plastic than they do. And to top that off, most developing nations don't have the infrastructure to handle it, and you see the bags clogging up waterways and blowing around, it's a big problem. So the direct pollution, even if I used more plastic, doesn't compare because most of the plastic I use goes to a landfill, not the local creek that's used as a sewer.

Re: Shaving is an example of how consumer products extract more money

#960

Post by s0rce »

drakonka wrote: post #767
s0rce wrote: post #764

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably carbon steel made from thinner sheets, there is a limit to how thin you can practically make a cast iron pan due to the brittle nature of the material and the casting process. The resulting properties with respect to seasoning are basically the same if the surface finish is consistent.

No, I'm pretty sure this is cast iron: "The raw material in Ultra Light Original is exactly the same as for our traditional cast iron. The difference is that with the new technique, the pans are less porous. This explains why the pans responds much quicker to changes in the stove’s power effect, and why they heat up and cool down faster than traditional cast iron cookware." https://ronnebybruk.us/blogs/cookware/ultra…

Interesting, I'm not sure why you would bother to do that vs. just stamping carbon steel sheet, the resulting product would seem, at least to my guess, be basically interchangeable. I wonder if there is some difference that matters here.
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