4 ms·

I know rose tinted goggles and all that. But honestly the older I get the worse the quality of products has become (for me - important). Everything has shifted

I know rose tinted goggles and all that. But honestly the older I get the worse the quality of products has become (for me - important). Everything has shifted towards planned obsolescence and I barely spend money today when I make way more than I used to when I first started working. I got a Tesla and it was built crappy and interior kept breaking. A purchase should make me happy but I felt like my dollar didn’t go far enough for how much I paid. I balled out on a $900 iPhone and it cracked on the first drop. Since then I’ve only purchased used iPhones for <200 bucks that I don’t care if I break. Almost every single video game I have tried in the past few years crashes or has bugs. The last game I played was Cyberpunk and I even put a new computer together to play it. What a nightmare lol. Everything is subscription based now. There’s no support unless you pay even more. And if you use it for a while and then want to use something else good luck because most of they make it hard to migrate. Maybe I’m just getting older but there ya go.

red-iron-pine 3y ago
Sounds like you need to learn to avoid the hype, mon ami. They sucker you in, every time, and you don't learn.
- moomoo11 3y ago
  I don't think so. I think its because everything has become commoditized now. iPhone have gotten more and more like glass art objects than functional phones. Apple knows people want their products, and their whole model made to extract as much money out of people as possible (apple care) obviously shows they are masters of capitalism and creating tons of shareholder value. It sucks, but hey at least I'll use the gains from holding apple stocks to spend on something else (which will also break lol). I find it much better now that I don't spend money on anything beyond basic functionality and create the aesthetics around it myself. I save a ton of money, and makes me feel better that I don't contribute to these companies beyond holding their stocks. I appreciate the quality items from my past (that were not that high quality to begin with during their time - they were just built better than what's available today at similar price points) that have lasted to this day. Everything else just gets tossed out when I'm done using it, and I buy it either used or the lowest end model.
  - askafriend 3y ago
    > shows they are masters of capitalism and creating tons of shareholder value Um....maybe there's another takeaway here. Maybe Apple created something people love, are delighted by and find useful in their lives. Maybe people want their most personal computers to be beautiful glass art objects. Intimate, daily-carry items have ALWAYS become fashion at some level (wallets, handbags, belts, etc). Phones were fashion and art long before the iPhone. Cases are perfectly great solutions for those who want more protection. It's much tougher to look yourself in the mirror and admit that maybe they're not tricking anyone, you just don't understand the market.
    - shrimp_emoji 3y ago
      That's true. People are stupid and the stuff they like is stupid, and understanding the market means your product will redound down to the lowest common denominator of quality. It's why addictive mobile games earn an order of magnitude more than good console games, which in turn earn an order more than good PC games. One counterpoint, though, is that no one likes cheap plastic interiors, and yet they're in the highest end cars now: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vXKOPwJ2Ink&t=120 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vXKOPwJ2Ink&t=120
      - askafriend 3y ago
        > People are stupid and the stuff they like is stupid Absolutely not. People are not stupid just because they don't value the things you think they should. People love beautiful objects. People love art. People love to be entertained. All of these things have immense value. People love color! There is a ton of value in bringing more color to the world and engaging people senses and emotions in new ways. So when HN-types deride Apple for releasing fun new colors, I find it telling and amusing; the HN-types simply don't understand people while Apple understands people more deeply than any other computer company. And no, not everyone wants to sit and watch information dense documentaries about complex world problems every day after work. Sometimes people just want to shut off their brain, relax and watch stupid content that encourages that state of mind. That content is serving a practical purpose. But I'm sure you'd deride it as trash and rotting people's brains while totally missing the point about why people gravitate towards it. Do some people take things to the extreme? Of course. Are mobile game mechanics often problematic? Of course. The world is a messy place.
shrimp_emoji 3y ago
Capitalism has overoptimized for profit, I think. The paperclip maximizer has started eating puppies to produce too many paperclips. I'm enchanted by the phrase "quality that's too high for the market to rationally produce". It referred to how much quality a hobbyist can put into a physical good because they're not manufacturing them at scale or for profit. I didn't realize that's a moving target though. ;p
- moomoo11 3y ago
  Capitalism is cool because eventually there will be something I enjoy and it will make me super happy lol.

red-iron-pine 3y ago

Sounds like you need to learn to avoid the hype, mon ami. They sucker you in, every time, and you don't learn.

moomoo11 3y ago
I don't think so. I think its because everything has become commoditized now. iPhone have gotten more and more like glass art objects than functional phones. Apple knows people want their products, and their whole model made to extract as much money out of people as possible (apple care) obviously shows they are masters of capitalism and creating tons of shareholder value. It sucks, but hey at least I'll use the gains from holding apple stocks to spend on something else (which will also break lol). I find it much better now that I don't spend money on anything beyond basic functionality and create the aesthetics around it myself. I save a ton of money, and makes me feel better that I don't contribute to these companies beyond holding their stocks. I appreciate the quality items from my past (that were not that high quality to begin with during their time - they were just built better than what's available today at similar price points) that have lasted to this day. Everything else just gets tossed out when I'm done using it, and I buy it either used or the lowest end model.
- askafriend 3y ago
  > shows they are masters of capitalism and creating tons of shareholder value Um....maybe there's another takeaway here. Maybe Apple created something people love, are delighted by and find useful in their lives. Maybe people want their most personal computers to be beautiful glass art objects. Intimate, daily-carry items have ALWAYS become fashion at some level (wallets, handbags, belts, etc). Phones were fashion and art long before the iPhone. Cases are perfectly great solutions for those who want more protection. It's much tougher to look yourself in the mirror and admit that maybe they're not tricking anyone, you just don't understand the market.
  - shrimp_emoji 3y ago
    That's true. People are stupid and the stuff they like is stupid, and understanding the market means your product will redound down to the lowest common denominator of quality. It's why addictive mobile games earn an order of magnitude more than good console games, which in turn earn an order more than good PC games. One counterpoint, though, is that no one likes cheap plastic interiors, and yet they're in the highest end cars now: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vXKOPwJ2Ink&t=120 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vXKOPwJ2Ink&t=120
    - askafriend 3y ago
      > People are stupid and the stuff they like is stupid Absolutely not. People are not stupid just because they don't value the things you think they should. People love beautiful objects. People love art. People love to be entertained. All of these things have immense value. People love color! There is a ton of value in bringing more color to the world and engaging people senses and emotions in new ways. So when HN-types deride Apple for releasing fun new colors, I find it telling and amusing; the HN-types simply don't understand people while Apple understands people more deeply than any other computer company. And no, not everyone wants to sit and watch information dense documentaries about complex world problems every day after work. Sometimes people just want to shut off their brain, relax and watch stupid content that encourages that state of mind. That content is serving a practical purpose. But I'm sure you'd deride it as trash and rotting people's brains while totally missing the point about why people gravitate towards it. Do some people take things to the extreme? Of course. Are mobile game mechanics often problematic? Of course. The world is a messy place.

shrimp_emoji 3y ago

Capitalism has overoptimized for profit, I think. The paperclip maximizer has started eating puppies to produce too many paperclips. I'm enchanted by the phrase "quality that's too high for the market to rationally produce". It referred to how much quality a hobbyist can put into a physical good because they're not manufacturing them at scale or for profit. I didn't realize that's a moving target though. ;p

moomoo11 3y ago
Capitalism is cool because eventually there will be something I enjoy and it will make me super happy lol.