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And yet, I have amazing coffee in my house pretty much at all times, from all over the world -- and every market I visit has 300 different beers in a wide varie
by vanniv 7y ago
And yet, I have amazing coffee in my house pretty much at all times, from all over the world -- and every market I visit has 300 different beers in a wide variety of styles (including gross IPA), and not just the four standards like it used to.
Low quality everything exists, and mass-market everything exists -- but niche interesting everything is cheaper and easier to get than ever.
I travel overseas often for work. Over the years, bringing gifts home for people has gotten much harder -- because the "good" versions of absolutely everything from everywhere are available at home for affordable prices already.
Finding something that isn't just a tourism-souvenir (like a shirt with the name of the place) keeps getting harder.
- toomuchtodo 7y ago"The future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed". Existence, availability, and affordability converge differently for different things. I'd also argue that as the number of something increases (beers, for example), it drags the average down and it becomes more difficult to find the diamond in the rough (opportunity cost, paradox of choice, survivorship bias).
- jacobolus 7y agoOr maybe the type of people who want to think of themselves as connoisseurs just have to become a lot pickier if they want to maintain the same condescending dismissal of easily available products. It’s perhaps more fun to find a “diamond in the rough” than an “already cut diamond in a jewel store”.
- toomuchtodo 7y agoProbably. I'm not much for "premium mediocre" [1] though. Availability and variety does not denote quality. [1] https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2017/08/17/the-premium-mediocre-life-of-maya-millennial/ https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2017/08/17/the-premium-mediocre-l...