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One way I heard efficiency described is the idea of a race car falling apart at the end of a race, doing its job in the most efficient manner as possible. Of c
by kiba 6y ago
One way I heard efficiency described is the idea of a race car falling apart at the end of a race, doing its job in the most efficient manner as possible.
Of course, this is pretty much inadvisable in every day life. We need some 'inefficiency' to ensure that our stuff won't break apart at the wrong time.
- chii 6y agothere's a time horizon attached to efficiency that needs to be considered. Sometimes this time horizon is not explicitly examined, but is just assumed. For the case of a racing car, if the engineers were told to design it with maximum efficiency possible, and it only has to last the race, then yes, why not have it break and fall apart at the end, if doing so means it runs at a very high efficiency?
- withinboredom 6y agoIt's not very efficient to win the race if you have to replace the car every race.
- mqus 6y agoBut otoh, this kind of efficiency is probably the reason why washing machines and other household items are now breaking sooner than before ("planned" obsolescence)
- MattGaiser 6y agoI also blame consumers here. Are you willing to pay $100 for a better quality washing machine? Most people are not.
- alex7o 6y agoBut even if I want to spend more, how will I know I am no spending more on inefficient stuff like a touchscreen on my fridge? Spending more money is sadly not equal to better quality, but I don't know what designates it.
- krapht 6y agoThere's a pretty good correlation between the two, let's not pretend otherwise.
- dpc_pw 6y agoIs there? How strong? Out of that $100 how much of extra weeks of usage will I get and with what confidence level? Also - Is it affected by the level of hardness in the local water and my patterns of usage ajd types of detergent I use? Does additional reliability affect any other parameters like energy and water usage? In a multi-variable comparison like this it is impossible to say much about future past 5 years with much certainty, while the price is single biggest objective metric.
- MattGaiser 6y agoYou would look at the warranty policies and guarantees. A 10 year warranty product is going to be better than one with a 3 year warranty.
- icelancer 6y agoBuy industrial/commercial appliances. They're ugly as hell and last forever. Except... people want nice looking things.
- 6y ago