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What some people call “fussiness” I call “doesn’t work.” When I was younger I enjoyed playing with the new tech, so I was willing to overlook a lot of problems.

What some people call “fussiness” I call “doesn’t work.” When I was younger I enjoyed playing with the new tech, so I was willing to overlook a lot of problems. But now I look around at the state of technology and I’m sort of flabbergasted at what we’ve let it become. Most stuff sold to consumers simply doesn’t work for a very simple and obvious definition of “doesn’t work.” Even my Wi-Fi “doesn’t work” by any normal standard of “works” that was in use before, say, 1980. Everything is sold as a 10% product. A 10% product is a cell phone in 1994. It provides transformational, life-changing functionality…10% of the time. The other 90% of the time it just frustrates you because it doesn’t work. It took cell phones 25 years to go from a 10% product to a 98% product. The problem is that most things aren’t cell phones. Most things sold to consumers should stay in the lab until they are closer to 98% than 10%.

jaclaz 5y ago
Additionally, I think there is a perception problem. If you have a normal wall thermostat switch you expect that it switches heating on when its sensor(s) believe it is too cold, and switches heating off when it becomes too hot. The device is very basic, does one thing (and does it correctly 99.99% of times, with the only rare cases when the switch actually breaks or wires get loose or contacts get oxidated, or batteries - if any - needs to be replaced). If you replace that with something else (that does "more" things) the basic expectation should be for it to work the SAME (with the same reliability) for the same basic scope AND add some other feature. Yet most people I know that tried (and still try) to have this or that kind of home automation are more tolerant when the thingy doesn't work (as expected and as it should) and insist on those crappy devices, hoping that an OTA will fix0 the issue or buying a new (WHY?) "version 2.0" as that is said to solve problems. Why you (average user) accept that your stupid net connected thermostat does whatever it feels like doing, including NOT switching heat on and off when needed?

jaclaz 5y ago

Additionally, I think there is a perception problem. If you have a normal wall thermostat switch you expect that it switches heating on when its sensor(s) believe it is too cold, and switches heating off when it becomes too hot. The device is very basic, does one thing (and does it correctly 99.99% of times, with the only rare cases when the switch actually breaks or wires get loose or contacts get oxidated, or batteries - if any - needs to be replaced). If you replace that with something else (that does "more" things) the basic expectation should be for it to work the SAME (with the same reliability) for the same basic scope AND add some other feature. Yet most people I know that tried (and still try) to have this or that kind of home automation are more tolerant when the thingy doesn't work (as expected and as it should) and insist on those crappy devices, hoping that an OTA will fix0 the issue or buying a new (WHY?) "version 2.0" as that is said to solve problems. Why you (average user) accept that your stupid net connected thermostat does whatever it feels like doing, including NOT switching heat on and off when needed?