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My company signed up for a $1000/year subscription-based water cooler
- hellofunk 8y agoAs I get older, I really wonder why people do this to other people. In this case, I'm talking about the manufacturer of this product. They know other human beings are going to spend a lot of money to use their products? It's important to make money, but at what consequence?
- bassman9000 8y agoBlame is shared: ask whoever signed the contract why. In this case, I'd find more blame in whoever willingly accepts this nonsense, rather than the one trying to sell it.
- dokem 8y agoIt's like evolution. Why does some weird, seemingly useless creature exist? Because it fills some crack in the ecological economy. Someone was willing to buy this piece of shit and that is explanation enough for its existence.
- hodgesrm 8y agoDon't you think it's more like some sort of genetic mutation that's just benign enough that it does not kill the organism immediately? (Lord help us if this one breeds.)
- dokem 8y agoIs that not the basis for all evolution?
- hellofunk 8y agoI read about apples exported from China, covered in a toxic paint so they look red and beautiful, even though it is harmful, all to make a buck. I just wonder why humans have not evolved to, at a minimum, actually show some caring attitude toward others of their same species. I think we're all doomed.
- econochoice 8y agoHumans are capable of both wonderful and terrible things. We're letting the ones who are willing to do terrible things for personal gain run wild with little accountability.
- Viker 8y agoWhat is worse? The people doing that harm at least do it for personal gain. But the rest of the "bystanders" actively avoid taking action or raising any alarms because they "don't want to be that guy"....
- econochoice 8y agoOften, being "that guy" means inflicting a disproportionate amount of misery on yourself and your family.
- philliphaydon 8y agoRed apples usually are coated in ground up beetle to give the bright redness colour. It’s considered non toxic. Donno if that’s the same as what you’re referring to. I think it’s called Shellac.
- hellofunk 8y agoI’m talking about a scandal from a couple years ago where apples were submerged in buckets of toxic paint to get a red color.
- philliphaydon 8y agoOH, I've not heard this story, got a link??? Unsure what to google for.
- hellofunk 8y agoI think it was a Vice video or similar, undercover at a chinese apple export "factory" showing what they did.
- miranda_rights 8y agoTo be fair, better implementations of this (mix your own flavored sparkling water machines) are pretty nice to have around. I'm not sure they're worth $1000/year but they do cut down on waste from plastic soda bottles and cans.
- projektir 8y agoI think you're overcomplicating it: people often prefer their gain to others' gain. And especially in the business mindset, the impact of the work you do is pretty much always downplayed. Same reason autoplay videos exist. It's very hard for a business structure to say no to an increase in profit due to a negative that's hard to quantify and that won't also result in an increase in profit.
- goatherders 8y agoNot everything in the world is a problem needing a better solution.
- trumped 8y agoThe "solution" is a bigger problem then the original problem, but that doesn't mean that it's impossible to do it better...
- deedubaya 8y agoRemember stuff like this when you decide to build something yourself instead of subscribing to a SaaS which does the same thing better.
- steviecleveland 8y agoYes, in terms of sanitation like 2500 years ago with that SaaS company called "the Roman Empire."
- tschwimmer 8y agoEveryone likes to blame loose VC money for silly stuff like this, but I have a slightly more nuanced theory about ridiculous office perks: Office managers/office teams have very few concrete metrics. Beyond a binary "is the office functional" (e.g. are there enough desks, does the electricity work) there is pretty much no way to measure job performance. That's not to say their work doesn't have any impact. Anyone who has worked in a poorly laid out office has dealt with the corresponding productivity drain. However, it's really hard to measure that boost/loss and nearly impossible to accurately attribute it. The solution is for office managers to do ridiculous but easily quantifiable things like spend money on subscription water coolers, an on-demand smoothie blending machine [0], potted plants that cost $800 [1]. If you are an office worker frustrated by this trend, you should invent some performance metric for office managers and then sell something that improves it. You'll instantly suck up all the VC money going to these other startups. [0]http://getreplenish.com/#1 http://getreplenish.com/#1 [1] https://www.leonandgeorge.com/plants/large-desert-cactus/ https://www.leonandgeorge.com/plants/large-desert-cactus/
- steviecleveland 8y ago> you should invent some performance metric profitability and growth
- IshKebab 8y agoThat's not something that is measurable for office managers. I don't think office managers need metrics - just a suggestion box. Most thinks are really obvious, especially if you let people tell you about them. I guarantee if the had a suggestion box nobody would suggest an IoT water cooler.
- Gys 8y agoI gave some suggestions to the manager of the cowork space where I go. She was very friendly and said yes thank you, but it was clearly not what she thought to be important. So no real improvements. Even though others tell me the same (and also switch to the much cheaper plan because that is the more rational thing to do then). So suggestions only work if it clicks with the other person (people). One guy asking an IoT water cooler could do the trick ;-)
- nradov 8y agoWhen I see transactions that don't make any economic sense I tend to suspect kickbacks.
- lopmotr 8y agoHis comments on the radiator grill aren't fair. The temperature of steam won't exceed 100 degrees C which some plastics are fine with. And the downward slope is to stop spilt water dripping inside. The fan (if it's working after that error!) will push the air through enough.
- zenexer 8y agoGiven the quality of the rest of the system, I have a hard time believing they put that much thought into it.
- JBorrow 8y agoSteam can be whatever temperature it wants. There is no 100C limit. Either way, there should be no steam near a radiator.
- noir_lord 8y agoYep beyond steam as most people know it there is dry steam/superheated steam (in the hundreds if not thousands of Celsius). A principle that's been used in steam engines for at least a century. It's horribly dangerous stuff to work with as well, it'll flay flesh straight off the bone.
- justin 8y agoI'm a customer of Bevi. I got it for our office after seeing it in another startup. I think Bevi is pretty great - cuts down on La Croix can wastage at the office. Some things could be improved: sometimes it runs out of CO2 and everything comes out flat.
- raverbashing 8y ago> I think Bevi is pretty great - cuts down on La Croix can wastage at the office. This sounds way entitled. But there are carbonated water machines that are not "smart" (meaning they aren't online and don't cost an arm an a leg to have a sw button running on a tablet)
- verylittlemeat 8y agoWhat's entitled about that? La Croix is just flavored seltzer water, you can buy a 24 pack for $10 at costco. It's not like they have champagne on tap.
- PotatoTomat0 8y agoBevi truly sucks, I don't know if it is the way it is configured, the level of carbonation is too weak and the Temperature is just not cold enough.
- detritus 8y agoHow many [somewhat efficiently recyclable] cans of fizzy drink product would it take to match the sunk cost of building this thing, with its own plethora of [recyclable?] components requiring periodic replacement? And, is the end-product more enjoyable?
- detritus 8y agoI guess I'll just have to accept the downvote as my answer... .
- oldcynic 8y agoThis seems to be a Sodastream made to be barely functional. A Samsung fridge with built in Sodastream seems a far better home for $1000, or even just an actual Sodastream which would leave enough change for a few years worth of flavours.
- philliphaydon 8y agoI remember reading the book, the inmates are running the asylum. Where it talks about how Engineers take things like the alarm clock which just works but we make it over complicated.
- megaman22 8y agoThings like this make me wonder about our Keurig, which could have been replaced years ago with a Bunn dual burner for less money and probably better coffee. Plus if everybody went to the breakroom at 9, 12 and 3 for coffee, collaboration would improve.
- erpellan 8y agoOffice design is highly vulnerable to bikeshedding. It _seems_ obvious so everyone has an opinion without realising the implications. I saw a costly office refurb that made everything open plan including the kitchen/breakout area. Within a week there were noise complaints from nearby teams and memos not to hang around, in the space that was literally designed to be hung around in, because open plan is currently fashionable.
- rdlecler1 8y agoSomething like this showed up in our gym about a month ago. Individuals pay $6.99/month for fancy water. The dismay says “9 bottles saved from landfill”.... ouch....
- RMAxe 8y agoI thought this article was going to be about slack