12 ms·

The Best

• driverdan 14y ago
  Dustin and I walk similar paths. Last year I got rid of everything I owned, sans a medium daypack of stuff, and traveled for 6 months. A year later I own more things than can fit in my backpack but am very much a minimalist. My philosophy of ownership is simple. If I need something I'll almost always get the best I can afford. Why not understand what you own? Why not own quality? I don't mean spend hours researching every small purchase but certainly spend a little time looking into something you'll use over a period of time. I don't need a cabinet full of plates or a closet full of clothes. Why not own higher quality, fewer items?
  • erichocean 14y ago
    Well, the obvious answer is that many people value variety. Also, many people would find the task of choosing "the best" items to be stuck with "forever" a difficult and stressful task. But certainly for some people (Aspie's, especially), fewer/better quality is a great way to go. I just don't think it generalizes as a life strategy for everyone, even those who can afford it.
  • josephagoss 14y ago
    Or why not own fewer items that are of the same quality? I'm not sure what its like over in the states but here in Australia, more expensive cloths are just branded, and high enough quality cutlery can be had in cheap stores. I'm not sure why you have to have higher quality to get less things? Is it the way you sell it to yourself? So you don't feel cheap? Isn't it a waste of your time thinking so so much about this worthless rubbish?
    • driverdan 14y ago
      Who said anything about the most expensive? Price doesn't always correlate with quality, especially when talking about brands as you mentioned. What makes you think I spend lots of time "thinking so much about this worthless rubbish"? I rarely purchase non-consumables. When I do I spend a reasonable amount of time based on the use and cost. I spent a lot of time researching laptops before buying mine since it's such an important item. I spent about 30 minutes reading about pens before buying some (in case you're not aware there are many sites dedicated to them). You could probably learn about flatware in the same amount of time.
      • heyitsnick 14y ago
        > Who said anything about the most expensive? You did when you said "I'll almost always get the best I can afford." You directly died quality to cost.
• mrknmc 14y ago
  He should post a list of such things.
  • tb303 14y ago
    http://kk.org/cooltools/ http://kk.org/cooltools/ Also, kevin's Tool Shopping Strategies: http://kk.org/cooltools/archives/7101 http://kk.org/cooltools/archives/7101 • The Best • The Highest Common • The Cheapest Possible
  • dcurtis 14y ago
    The problem is that "the best" is different for everyone. I can post some of the things that are the best to me, but it's also about the journey of finding out what really matters to you.
    • pm 14y ago
      Not for all things. I presume no-one wants a hiking bag with zips that come undone, nor a wallet that deforms. I would also rather let someone do that work for me, if they feel so inclined to do it, as I have neither the time nor the money to engage in such activities. So please, post a list!
    • Gring 14y ago
      Of course it's different for everybody. But please do post more, and how you wound up with them, it's fascinating.
    • mezdef 14y ago
      While "the best" is certainly different for everyone, it's always interesting to see what works for different people. The research and details are what makes this pursuit interesting for me. Usual reviews tend not to cover these things (one of the reasons I enjoy the work of John Siracusa). I would be extremely interested in a list of the things you have found to be best for you, and the reasons you came to that decision, or the process by which you arrived there.
    • esolyt 14y ago
      I enjoyed the post. I really liked the idea of living with a single backpack. But, how exactly do you decide what is the best for you? You say that you "developed a blind trust in the things you used". Blind trust in what? If that blind trust is towards the products themselves, then how will you know when something better for your purposes comes out? If that blind trust is towards the company/person making the product, I'm afraid that is not an interesting or new concept. It is called brand loyalty or "fanboyism" in slang and I think this is actually the opposite of what you would want. Brand loyalty can prevent you from finding the best of everything. We are not living in the Samurai age, where there is one excellent sword maker and you shouldn't consider swords made by others as long as you can find that guy and afford his swords. We live in a fundamentally different world, where almost all kinds of products (especially consumer electronics) have very short lifecycles.
• tlrobinson 14y ago
  I love the idea of having very few things, but getting rid of the stuff I already have feels daunting. I'd be happy to donate most of it, but I'd have to sort through everything, figuring out if each thing is worth selling, donating, or throwing away, then figuring out where to sell, donate, or throw it away, then actually doing it. Anyone who has gone through the process, do you have any suggestions?
  • aidenn0 14y ago
    Just start culling a little bit every few months. The funny thing is that it gets easier each time, even though the things you are getting rid of become more important (since you've gotten rid of the really useless stuff already).
  • skreech 14y ago
    Whitelist the things you actually need and use. Probably: 1. Five sets of clothes 2. Laptop 3. Phone Donate everything else to a good charity. Especially the valuable stuff. (Assuming you have good finances and don't really need the money)
  • protomyth 14y ago
    Rent a storage garage (climate controlled), then put all your non-vital stuff into it. If it isn't worth storing you can throw it away - right away. If its something you think you should have used during the year (not long term keep sake or legal documents), then figure out what your going to do with it. Don't do everything at once. Just pick some stuff out of storage and determine what to do. Slowly. If you need it, just grab it from storage. If nothing else, a storage garage makes a fine place to keep your encrypted, backups. [edit] put Rubbermaid shelves (or equiv) in the storage garage, do not pile boxes. That will defeat the purpose. The Rubbermaid shelves are easy to put up and sell / donate later.
    • tlrobinson 14y ago
      Actually I already have a storage unit, which I don't think I've been to in over a year :) I like the Rubbermaid shelves idea though.
• kiba 14y ago
  There is no best in everything, only tools that meet specifics requirement. For example, there many kind of hammers for so many different purpose. One doesn't just use a hammer for everything that a hammer could do. Some hammer you use for smashing, others for driving a nails in, some to shape objects, and some to bash the opponents' head in battle. Likewise, there's no perfect single piece of flatware. The Victorians, for example, loves to buy tons of silverware just to make eating elegant and perfect for every single dishes. They could have solved the problem of eating by merely washing their faces and their hands afterward, but custom dictates. Instead, they spent thousand of dollars on the many variations of fork, spoon, knife designed to meet different challenges of each particular dish.
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• wamatt 14y ago
  Mr Curtis could do worse than watching Gladwell's Ted Talk from a few years back: http://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauce.html http://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauce... tl;dr when one asks a question involving people, and you want the most fitted data, then you need to consider grouping/segmentation of the population into clusters of preference. What is the best spaghetti sauce? It's a flawed question, as it contains an invalid assumption. Thus what Curtis seems to be describing is a (great/awesome/very good) etc set of knives, but not 'the best'. Very good = a maximization of universal requirements Best = maximization of universal && local requirements (population segmentation preferences, spacial and temporal context etc) Example: Those forks may be best for Curtis at his dinner. They are certainly not best for me, on my camping trip. Or best for a tribe in Africa with different shaped mouths and habits etc. Or best for someone eating Chinese takeout. etc
  • jfb 14y ago
    "Different shaped mouths"?
    • wamatt 14y ago
      Haha now that you mention it, that does sound a bit odd! :) While it was just an example.. perhaps though, it's possible for there to be morphological oral differences. Similar to that which exists in other parts of the body, such as facial structure, eyes, noses etc
      • plaguuuuuu 14y ago
        Singer from Aerosmith. He has a HUGE mouth.
      • jfb 14y ago
        Yeah, I think it's totally a thing, it just sounded really strange.
    • esolyt 14y ago
      Not necessarily different shaped mouths, but there are different ways of eating and different ways of using a fork depending on your sex, hand size, culture, daily caloric intake etc. You can't make "the best fork" unless you also want to enforce your way of eating upon people who are going to use your fork. You can, however, try to make the best fork for the largest group of people and get people to become loyal to your brand. After they become loyal to you, you will feel more and more power to enforce your ways of doing things and as a result your products will get "even better" in their eyes. This is what most companies are trying. But only Apple is exceptionally good at this. Hence, I think this whole article serves the purpose of subconsciously justifying the author's brand loyalty to Apple.
• atourgates 14y ago
  Finding "the best" of a product is an obscure hobby. And I'm all for finding joy in an obscure hobby. But I have a hard time believing that Mr. Curtis is any more liberated by the flatware that he spent 6-months researching than I am by the set I happened upon at Crate and Barrel. I wholeheartedly admire people like Sori Yanagi who work hard to create "the best" of anything. I also wholeheartedly believe that trying to pin virtue on the process of being a consumer of "the best" of anything is little more than pretense
  • 9999 14y ago
    It's kind of bizarre for me to stumble across this reference to Yanagi flatware on an HN post, because I just recently threw out my mismatched collection of flatware that had accumulated over the course of many roommates/years and bought Sori Yanagi flatware (although not the MoMa pieces there). I went from owning a dozen or so crappy forks to owning just four perfect forks. It enforces a certain rigor about washing dishes. I would not describe them as "the best" flatware and I agree that is a somewhat absurd designation and pursuit. That being said, they are extraordinarily beautiful and functional. Their light weight, finish, and balance all combine to make pieces that beg to be held, meanwhile, the shape and understated aesthetic mean they do not dominate the table--they disappear. Although they weren't included in the collection, I can imagine them fitting into the Supernormal group (http://www.supernormal.co.uk/ http://www.supernormal.co.uk/). Something as mundane as flatware can easily be dismissed by people that do not care about design, but I have found that on my path to owning fewer things it is much easier to justify owning exactly the right thing for me.
  • aes256 14y ago
    > Finding "the best" of a product is an obscure hobby. And I'm all for finding joy in an obscure hobby. But I have a hard time believing that Mr. Curtis is any more liberated by the flatware that he spent 6-months researching than I am by the set I happened upon at Crate and Barrel. There is definitely something to it, even if it is largely psychological. Take music as an analogy. I'm not an obsessive audiophile by any means, but I have all my music stored in lossless file formats. In practice it probably doesn't make a significant difference to my listening experience, but there is an undeniable satisfaction in knowing I have 'the best'. I can tick that box off my metaphorical to-do list. I don't have to worry about the file encoding detracting from my listening experience. I'm not left wondering whether the grass is greener on the other side.
• mapgrep 14y ago
  This is empty madness. It is, very literally, a celebration of total materialism. What is ultimately important in life are people -- messy, filthy, bacteria-and-disease-laden, imperfect, emotional, sweating shitting cursing crying screaming laughing farting people and the connections we build to them. This celebration of spending insane amounts of time choosing the perfect flatware or the perfect wallet is sick. Steve Jobs spent eight years discussing furniture with his family before buying a sofa etc (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/11/14/111114fa_fact_gladwell http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/11/14/111114fa_fact_...). I will never do that, and I will never have flatware as nice as Dustin Curtis', and I will never have sound as good as an obsessive audiophile, or the perfect car. I won't even write a particularly convincing Hacker News comment on this very topic. I've got to go. Life is too short for this shit.
  • kiba 14y ago
    This is empty madness. It is, very literally, a celebration of total materialism. What is madness to you may not be madness to dcutis, and messy human beings are not all there is worthwhile in the universe. Would you want to watch a reality tv show that records the uglyness and pettyness of human nature? I honestly rather discuss and learn about things rather than about drama-queen contestant #3.
    • Swizec 14y ago
      I hear a lot of people have gotten very rich by making reality shows that record the uglyness and pettyness of human nature.
    • anigbrowl 14y ago
      Dustin Curtis's problem here is that he thinks his subjective preferences are objectively true. I mean, if he says 'I love this flatware because it has these beautiful proportions, is manufactured in such-and-such a way, and exudes timeless quality etc. etc.', then great - he's a good designer, I'm interested in his aesthetic philosophy. But when he says 'I am the arbiter of quality' he's lost me. By doing so, he rejects the possibility of tastes other than his own and comes off as absurdly egotistical. I don't know if Dustin Curtis is married, but if not he may be in for a bit of a surprise down the road, when it turns out that his view is not the only one that matters.
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• gfunk911 14y ago
  “Who are you the King of Siam, you got to get the best one? Who cares? They’re all the same these machines. They’re all made from the same asian suffering.” - Louis CK
• esolyt 14y ago
  Impressive. Dustin Curtis has now developed the ability to praise Apple without mentioning Apple.
• pulplobster 14y ago
  I have never even given flatware or towels any thought. They both have minimal impact on my life and thus don't need optimization. My laptop has a great impact on my life, so I think it's reasonable to spend time researching what you need and paying for the best if that makes sense. My wife is a terrible premature optimizer. She pinches pennies on the most obscure things like toilet paper, just to turn around and spend hundreds on a bag. My view is that I would cut that bag out of my purchases, and then it doesn't matter if I optimize my toilet paper or not. Oh well, people are different.
  • anigbrowl 14y ago
    Consider, if you will, that your wife's purchase of an expensive handbag is more purposeful than you imagine. First, women's clothes tend not to have pockets, so a reliable and comfortable bag is rather more important for ladies than gentlemen. Second, your wife understands that her handbag is also a social signaling device, and understands how to communicate in a completely non-verbal medium.
    • pulplobster 14y ago
      Oh yes, I've come to understand that these things are very valuable to her, but it's difficult for me to imagine. She's very cheap, unless it's something she cares very much about. When she's researching those things she's a huge optimizer, and I'm the biggest satisficer you can find. I think optimizers tend to be less happy though. For her engagement ring she spent months researching (wouldn't let me do it) and finally we bought a $7k ring. When she got it she was devastated that the ring didn't make her happier than it did. The good thing is, she's learning; I think she's realizing that optimizing everything doesn't actually lead to happiness.
• Swizec 14y ago
  Dustin thinks he's discovered something new, instead he's just a product of this generation. The generation new york times once characterised as "Would rather own one pair of $100 jeans than ten pairs of $10 jeans". Our parents are mystified. Their parents much less so.
  • ceol 14y ago
    I recall an article along those same lines. If I'm correct, it outlined this culture of rich, dcurtis-like backpackers who spend $50 on a five piece flatware set and live out of their suitcases. They insist their culture is one of minimalism and perfection, but it's actually just wanton consumerism. Now, I don't think dcurtis meant this post to hate on shoddy, mass-produced items, and I wouldn't even say it comes across this way. It's the fact that most people don't have the luxury to invest the time and money in picking out the very best of everything they own. Most people get a decent set of flatware, a decent towel, and a decent backpack because we have non-materialistic things we need to invest our time and money in.
    • tobyjsullivan 14y ago
      I know a lot of people who waste their money on 60" tv's, three video game consoles (and an endless assortment of games they play once or twice), they stock their house with 5x as much flatware and towels as they need, all from Walmart, just "in case" they have that many guests. Not to mention their 6 bookshelves from Ikea to put all their stuff on. They would do well to consider this philosophy. I have, since long before this was written, and it's an ongoing learning experience with endless rewards.
  • rokhayakebe 14y ago
    Would rather own one pair of $100 jeans than ten pairs of $10 jeans I bought jeans that cost way north of $100 and I also grab jeans on the Gap's clearance rack that cost me around $13 after tax. There is a definitely a huge difference. When I bought my first pair of Rock Republic, I told myself I could wear these for the next 10 years.$100 jeans are worth the money in the way they feel, and fit; $50 t shirts and $100 shirts, not so much.
• ben0x539 14y ago
  Couldn't someone have editoralized that title? It's not very informative.
  • skreech 14y ago
    It is indeed not the best title. Is it the best article?
• jwb119 14y ago
  Can't help but think of that scene from Fight Club. "It's just, when you buy furniture, you tell yourself, that's it. That's the last sofa I'm gonna need. Whatever else happens, I've got that sofa problem handled."
  • rkwz 14y ago
    The book has some really good quotes. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fight_Club_(novel) http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fight_Club_(novel)
• nadam 14y ago
  It would take an extreme amount of time and quite a lot of money to apply this philosophy if you have a family with small children (like me). I am quite minimalist and selective in my work, but do not (and cannot) apply the same philosophy for my life.
  • tobyjsullivan 14y ago
    I don't think it's blank and white, or a matter of either you can do it or you can't. I'm sure even for Mr. Curtis there are some things that he just can't bother to find the best of (even if he implies otherwise) such as, say, mechanical pencil leads. For a family man there are most likely some big purchases that you could apply this philosophy to. A television set or maybe a new home phone or a tablet PC. I suspect the conclusion for all three would ultimately be that you need none but short of that, researching the best and getting it once would still be worthwhile. Even if you don't have the time to re-evaluate the cereal selection every time you go grocery shopping.
• namank 14y ago
  I would be wary of your 'intrinsic side effect' carrying over to your relationships and human interactions.
• oz 14y ago
  This is the age-old debate of maximizers vs satisficers: http://happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2006/06/are_you_a_satis/ http://happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2006/06/are_y... In a nutshell, Dustin is a maximizer. Regarding flatware, my views have changed as I've grown older (I'm 26). A few years ago, I didn't care. Now, for some reason, I always reach for a specific knife/fork combo: I like the weight (most are too light for me), the balance between the handle and the blade/tines and the industrial design. Eating with them just feels better.
  • jessriedel 14y ago
    That is a good blog post.
  • mahyarm 14y ago
    I've learned long ago that being a satisficer is the maximal life strategy. The entire battle between a perfectionist and so on.
  • RockyMcNuts 14y ago
    You have to pick the things you maximize vs. the things you satisfice. If you're a foodie, you might maximize food, while economizing on other areas. Steve Jobs lived in a fairly modest home, but maximized the beauty and utility of the everyday objects around him, while Bill Gates built a technology showcase.
  • gammarator 14y ago
    The linked blog post discusses it, but I want to highly recommend "The Paradox of Choice" by Barry Schwartz [1]. He discusses psychological research showing why maximizing--attempting to have the best of everything--actually leads us to be less happy with our choices, not more. Seek quality, sure--but decide what's "good enough," and stop looking when you find it. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Paradox-Choice-Why-More-Less/dp/0060005696/ http://www.amazon.com/Paradox-Choice-Why-More-Less/dp/006000...
    • ctdonath 14y ago
      That's why I follow sites like uncrate.com & Minimalissimo.com and buy my furniture from Stickley, etc. - find a few sources recommending high quality stuff and choose from there; I know it may not be "perfect" and know it will be expensive, but it will be good and I'll be happy with it.
• scarmig 14y ago
  Perfection is meaningless when it comes to material goods. They're always a means to an end. Dustin would probably argue that finding a well-designed product is a better means to the end (of forming relationships, living, loving, friends, experiences, adventures). It's a plausible point, but it's empirically wrong. No one in the history of the world has ever gone, "the one thing I regret most is not spending 40 hours researching to find the perfect set of flatware." Following this advice is difficult for me. I usually find it very difficult to not do the same: obsessing over the best bed sheets, the best cutting boards, the best computer, the best Linux distribution, the best jeans, the best bike, the best books, the best newspaper, the best way to cut onions, the best suit, the best $MATERIALGOOD. Because of a recent housing disaster, I lost virtually everything. It has been very liberating. All those hours spent obsessing over stupid shit? Worthless. The friends, family, and relationship that helped me get through it? Worth everything. A shopping list, Target, Ikea, and Amazon can get you everything you need to live a materially comfortable life in 10 minutes. Everything else is just a means to playing an unwinnable status game.
  • Firehed 14y ago
    > Perfection is meaningless when it comes to material goods. They're always a means to an end. I think he's well aware of that. While some of the examples were kind of strange and materialistic, there's a lot of truth in the concept that some goods are made better than others. When I use cheap goods, I tend to have a poor experience with it and uncertainty about its ability to do its job[1]. Higher-quality stuff ("the best"), for the most part, doesn't have this problem. I can trust that the stuff I'm using will let me get on with my life without getting in my way. It's like reaching into the toolbox and finding the exact tool you need for the job at hand - rather than fighting with something that's kinda-sorta what you need, you can just do what needs to get done. That time I was fixing the shower head and had the pipe tape I needed on-hand and where I expected it to be: it prevented a five-minute job from turning into a two-hour ordeal. I like that. You raise a great point though - a lot of this stuff is not necessary at all. But various situations often beyond our control will always be changing our standards of living. I think the real take-away is that if you're going to have stuff to improve your life, make sure you're getting stuff good enough that it's actually an improvement. [1] All the electronic crap in bathrooms, like paper towel dispensers and automatic flush toilets. When it works, great - but when it doesn't, you're fighting with inanimate objects that try to re-solve problems we solved centuries ago. #firstworldproblem I know, but I could do without the "am I going to have to wave my hand in front of the paper towel dispenser for thirty seconds again?" every time I wash my hands.
• 1as 14y ago
  I like Dustin, and I love what he's doing with Svbtle, but he has this – as I see it – irrational need to own and experience "the best". Maybe there is such a thing as the best cutlery, and maybe the cutlery he bought is it...but it seems like such an empty, odd, materialistic goal. 'First world problems' writ large. I first noticed it from this tweet (http://twitter.com/dcurtis/statuses/246843440179056640 http://twitter.com/dcurtis/statuses/246843440179056640) where he asks about "the best ramen in Tokyo". Anybody with any cultural, historical, or indeed culinary understanding of ramen can see that this is totally missing the point. My question is, why continuously talk about and seek "the best" as opposed to, say, "really good"? There's a kind of arrogance entrained in such a mode of thought.
  • plaguuuuuu 14y ago
    Urgh. Asking about the best flatware doesn't really move me -- why else would anyone buy expensive flatware -- but the best ramen? It's a manifestation of this generation's way of living. Not through appreciation of food, art, music, but through acquisition of it. This is why people are so obsessed with instagramming their michelin-hatted dinners. Why people say that they've "done" Asia or Europe. Why people own limited edition vinyl records and have NO RECORD PLAYER. Disgusting.
  • spartango 14y ago
    While I can see your point, you might consider that by asking many people for their respective favorites, he seeks to get a list of a many options. This is simply driven by the assumption that if there are many nearly equal "really good" spots, then people will provide a nice distribution of them as personal favorites.
    • fudged71 14y ago
      The thesis of this blog post, by the same author, is clearly about the literal best. He could easily have asked "What is a good place for ramen?" or "What should I look for to find a good ramen place?" or even "What is your favorite place for ramen?" And note that he's not asking for the restaurants, he's specifically asking about the product: the best ramen in tokyo. I think it fits this blog post very well. If I go to Italy for the first time, I won't go for "the best pasta in Italy", I'd go and try authentic italian pasta. There is a huge difference.
• tnuc 14y ago
  Is this an advertisement for cutlery? Tune in next week when we will be told what the best toilet paper is.
  • kin 14y ago
    exactly what I thought. It's the only product specifically mentioned.
  • sopooneo 14y ago
    If it was truly great stuff, I would be okay with that. As many others have pointed out, spending inordinate amounts of time researching every possession might not make for a great life. But why not let someone else do it for us? If one person gets a reputation for integrity and publishes the best of each category on a website, with links to buy, great. And I wouldn't mind them taking a cut. Isn't that part of what the web is for?
• jwilliams 14y ago
  That flatware has design issues. I went through a lot of knife/fork combinations. The little "nubs" on these serves a few important purposes. 1. It gives an easier point to grip, particularly for people that have problems gripping. 2. It stops liquid (e.g. a juicy steak) from dribbling down the fork on to your hand. Of course, it doesn't look at cool...
• chrischen 14y ago
  I also think it's a consumer's responsibility to seek out the best and do a little research. It sends the wrong signals to competitors if consumers do not do that.
• grecy 14y ago
  While I try very hard to own a minimum set of possessions, always buying "the best" rings very true for me. Here in The Yukon we have 20+ hours of daylight for activities in the summer, and regularly see -40C/F in the winter. Quite simply, if you don't buy "The Best" of anything, it will break or fall apart very quickly. Kia cars last at most 2 winters up here. Cheap canoes and kayaks won't last one summer. I bought $200 hiking boots that were destroyed in one month walking to work at -40C Gore-tex? freezes solid, cracks and is destroyed after -35C The motto is very simple. Buy it right the first time.
• kiskis 14y ago
  Some guys just don't realize how artifical the problem is they pursue. I'm wondering how much time will they devote to try to find the perfect coffin. I mean, "some of the things that matter in coffin design are obvious, like the material and weight. Other things, which are arguably more important, are seemingly never even considered, like how the wood feels against your bones and skin, for example, or how the weight balances under the tombstone. The long term durability of each plywood is also important."
• rhizome 14y ago
  What is this, dcurt.is week? There were two on the front page yesterday.
  • skeletonjelly 14y ago
    It's Svtle season! Subtvle? Subvtl? Edit: Svbtle.
    • lazugod 14y ago
      Please stop.
      • skeletonjelly 14y ago
        Because it's my fault I can't spell this non word?
        • deleted 14y ago
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        • gyepi 14y ago
          yes
• deleted 14y ago
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• onan_barbarian 14y ago
  It's almost beyond parody: "when you have trust in everything you own, you don’t have to worry about anything. It’s liberating and an amazing feeling. My life was markedly better because of it." Right, because sane people would otherwise spend a lot of time sitting around worrying about their stuff. It reminds me of a Louie CK routine: "I need the best Blu-Ray! What are you, the King of Siam? You deserve the absolute best everything? These machines are all the same, made by the same Asian suffering."
  • andylei 14y ago
    I think this line did it for me: > I trusted my wallet to hold cash, boarding passes, and IDs without deforming or falling apart, and it did. Imagine the chaos if my wallet started deforming! My wallet was some random wallet I bought at WalMart for $10, and I'm always worrying, "is the cash I put in my wallet going to stay there?" Sometimes, it just quantum tunnels right through the wallet into my pocket! It's anarchy!
    • frossie 14y ago
      Imagine the chaos if my wallet started deforming! I realise you are being funny, but your comment is analogous to an extrovert going "sheesh, imagine the chaos if you actually came out with your coworkers for one beer!" to an introvert who really really wants to go home. You are trying to assign a seriousness to somebody else's reaction to something. If you are happy with the first wallet you picked up (be it for $10 at Wal-Mart or a more expensive one from a leather goods store) that is great. Some people are just incredibly bothered by things that other people don't notice. For those people, the perfect spoon really does improve their life, the way a neat desk with carefully stacked papers improves the life of a person with OCD, and is totally irrelevant to somebody else. It is entirely possible that the dude is happier purely because he feels he has the best fork he could have and that makes the fork "disappear". I feel happy because I have a keyboard that "disappears" when I use it (I never think about my keyboard). I am under no delusion that it makes me a discerning hacker while he is a shallow materialist. Everybody tries to maximise their happiness by smoothing out the bumps of life. If you have a psychology with better suspension, just be grateful and carry on.
• brianwillis 14y ago
  I agree with Dustin's point that life is "markedly better" by having the best available. In saying that, I'm often happier to outsource some of the responsibility for deciding what is the best product to someone else than do the leg work myself. I just can't bring myself to get excited about televisions, cars, and most household appliances. Would I find a product that better matched my sensibilities by carefully researching the market? Sure, but buying a product that's a 97% fit for twenty minutes of work is better than buying one that's a 99% fit for twenty hours of work. Or at least in my head that's how the cost-benifit analysis works out (this sort of thing is deeply personal, and I'm prepared to accept that other people's values are different). The Wirecutter is great for this sort of thing (http://www.thewirecutter.com http://www.thewirecutter.com). Need a set of headphones? What's your price bracket? OK, get this pair.
  • rdl 14y ago
    The Wirecutter is surprisingly accurate. I browsed for things in which I'm an expert (headphones, cameras, LCD screens -- you don't seem to have vehicles, petrochemicals, lab equipment, firearms, radios, or other tactical stuff..), and your recommendations either matched mine or at least seemed defensible, rather than Details/Stuff style driven by advertisers.
  • bobsil1 14y ago
    Disagree with Curtis, it's actually possible to automate this so it doesn't take him spending weeks reading up on flatware. Just use the knowledge of those who already have. My startup's app analyzes user ratings and tells you immediately which one's good for your purposes. Give it a shot: http://tryarrow.com http://tryarrow.com.
    • rdl 14y ago
      I would far prefer to use that "app" as a website, not as a phone app. I have approximately never been walking around with just my iPhone and thought "Oh! I want to buy a new Point and Shoot Camera! Let me enumerate my preferences..." As a website, I'd seriously consider using it, particularly for stuff (like flatware, or shoes, or dish soap, or whatever) that I don't care that much about.
• deleted 14y ago
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• grinich 14y ago
  Buy the best, cry once.
• giblfiz 14y ago
  This post makes me think of many of the concepts from "zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance". For those who haven't read it, it focuses heavily on the nature of quality (how it is both somewhat universal, and somewhat a matter of taste) and the spiritual nature that quality can contain. to mapgrep, the first poster, I would suggest that not all things concerning or focusing on physical objects are materialism. One could even argue that dcurt is attempting to _avoid_ having to think about material objects once he has bought them, that this is what he means by "trusting" the things he owns.
• antidoh 14y ago
  Or: you're gonna lose it anyway, so don't sink too much into it. The only things I'm willing to spend serious money on are shoes and teeth.
• alexmr 14y ago
  I like the loosely follow this philosophy without it taking over my life. finding a person/source you trust a ton and buying what they say is helpful, for example thewirecutter.com
• zerostar07 14y ago
  Buying the best stuff, i have no problem with that. Being the guy who always buys the best stuff, reminds me of that phrase about the things that end up owning you.
• Donch 14y ago
  American Psycho.
• rodolphoarruda 14y ago
  My ex-girlfriend developed this obsession for having "the best" of every possible thing... I realized it by the time she dumped me...
• vertr 14y ago
  "The result–being able to blindly trust the things you own–is intensely liberating." It seems somewhat pathetic that psychological liberation should come from choosing the correct personal possessions. I think a better form of liberation would be to shift focus away from possessions entirely.
• milroc 14y ago
  I don't understand why there is so much talk of this article being so very materialistic. It's kind of the mentality of a good number of individuals who did or are wanting to try a very minimalistic style of travel (others exist obviously: ignore certain needs (for me: don't bring a computer; for others: only the clothes on your back); buy and throw away each time you're somewhere new (only works in certain areas of the world with certain high budgets); etc. This however is the majority view point for vagabonding. Invest in key items that meet your exact needs (knowing your needs is an important aspect of this). If you do this beforehand you won't be stuck in some country without a passport because it fell out of the hole in your siblings old backpack. If you ignore the anecdote about flatware you realize that the article describes minimalism at it's core. Ensuring all your needs are met with the minimal amount of goods. There is one flaw with this concept of "The Best" that individuals who follow this mantra tend to lose sight of another very important aspect - time. While Daniel Curtis clearly showed his obsession by buying 20 different sets to determine which is the best for him. I imagine that others don't have that amount of time to invest in this decision. I am this way with most purchases; if you have something that will significantly improve the quality of life you have or something that while not necessarily a need but has moved to a desired addition to your lifestyle, spend the time to find the best fit for you. If it is not worth the time to look for what is the best fit for you; don't purchase it because you merely want it.
  • fudged71 14y ago
    Agree and disagree. It sounds to me like the void created by ditching his personal goods was replaced with the time to find 'the best' possible items. To the point of obsession. In fact, I'm glad he stuck to an essential item like silverware rather than the luxury goods that I'm sure he's got. In that sense, I think it contrasts the idea of minimalism. Obsessive maximalism.
  • maxerickson 14y ago
    It's mostly because he didn't title it "A Good One That You Like a Lot (or Maybe Just Enough)". So people that bought durable flatware that they never think about are induced to compare it to flatware that is presented as being The Best (even though the author would likely not spend time or energy trying to convince them they made the wrong choice). This sort of minimalism is also quite post-materialistic, in that it depends on materialism (for example, a materialistic society is a pretty great way to end up with dozens of types of flatware to choose from).
• rdl 14y ago
  I like to optimize, but also optimize on price. In ~2007, I felt proud to buy a $21500 new Lincoln LS V8 (loaded) which I bought for $23k less than sticker the day they got discontinued, in UAE, since it was essentially a Jaguar S-Type. It made me happier than buying a $45k stripped BMW would have. I also put a lot of effort into getting great headphones, great keyboard, etc., and a chair that I like. I didn't put weeks of research into buying bowls. I saw they were cheap on slickdeals, noticed I needed bowls, and bought some on sale. I don't really research who makes the best bottled water at Costco, I just get whatever is cheap at the time. Pick your battles.
• calinet6 14y ago
  Props for the URL - http://dcurt.is/the-best http://dcurt.is/the-best My bet is he dreamed up the title and then wrote an entire meaningless post just to sneak it in. Y'all just been trolled good.
  • leeoniya 14y ago
    everything he does comes off as elitist and egotistical. http://www.dustincurtis.com/ http://www.dustincurtis.com/ - Dustin Curtis is a superhero are you fvckin' kidding me?
    • calinet6 14y ago
      Nope, he is not kidding, and it's sick.
• waxjar 14y ago
  This does not belong in the top spot on Hacker News. Quality stuff is nice to own, woop-dee-fucking-doo. Just because Dustin Curtis wrote it, doesn't mean you instantly gotta hit that tiny little triangle. I very much doubt this little article would have collected more than 10 upvotes if it were written by some 20-year old that happened to stumble upon r/minimalism. I've seen a few of his articles now that are upvoted mindlessly and don't have the slightest relation to technology or startups. It makes me a little bit mad.
  • georgeorwell 14y ago
    People congregate around narcissists. The more epic the narcissism, the more epic the congregation. And it goes in the other direction too: epic congregation implies epic narcissism. It pisses me off too, but I guess this is just life.
• adebelov 14y ago
  i think this is an incredible post. We rarely embrace the art and quality it takes to build things that we use everyday (toothbrushes, wallets, backpacks, forks, etc.), but in search for them, you encounter people that built them and an incredible story behind them. Very inspiring to strive to surround yourself with best of everything.
• ftwinnovations 14y ago
  I bought some flatware... A spork made of titanium. Why? Because I saw an ad on a nerd gear website. I've had it for years, and eat everything I can with it. But I don't have a strange obsession with everything being the best. But I love my titanium spork. To each their own I guess.
• Peteris 14y ago
  Reminding me of that Motorolla Droid add with the guy living with his devices and bed in an open concrete square house. Thoroughly optimal design is neutral, soulless and impersonal, it is frightening.
• pvarangot 14y ago
  I'm sorry for you Mr. Curtis whoever you are... guess you'll never be able to learn how to play the violin.
• ChristianMarks 14y ago
  He died in 2011 but his flatware lives on. A whole year. OK.
• collypops 14y ago
  In the past week, Dustin has posted a few articles [1,2,3] that have gained a massive amount of attention here, which all try to drill home the point that we should be out there living our lives as if they're going to end tomorrow. We shouldn't put off decisions, we should act on impulses that will make our lives better in ways we won't even realise. In summary: Life's too short, so get on with living it. Now he gives us this. Cutlery. He should take his own advice and get out of The Waiting Place, get back in The Fight and Do more than obsess over subjective things that even his own opinion will change about in time. [1] http://dcurt.is/the-fight http://dcurt.is/the-fight [2] http://dcurt.is/the-waiting-place http://dcurt.is/the-waiting-place [3] http://dcurt.is/do http://dcurt.is/do
• amix 14y ago
  I think this kind of obsession (about things that don't matter) was best portrayed in American Psycho's business card scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoIvd3zzu4Y http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoIvd3zzu4Y
• DanBC 14y ago
  Eh, I prefer the cutlery from Pott. (https://pinterest.com/pin/278519558175121239/ https://pinterest.com/pin/278519558175121239/) Guy DeGrenne does nice cutlery too. (https://pinterest.com/pin/278519558175121407/ https://pinterest.com/pin/278519558175121407/) The worst? (http://pinterest.com/pin/278519558175126518/ http://pinterest.com/pin/278519558175126518/) - this abomination. Pinterest links used because, let's be honest, that's the best place for this kind of stuff.
• deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
• javajosh 14y ago
  If one attacks the OP for being materialistic, then one misses the entire point. This post is about minimizing hypocrisy. Too often we do not pay attention to the things that others have built for us. We, the builders and the makers, do not pay enough attention to the builders and the makers that influence our lives! Don't we wish that our customers would pay close attention when they are deciding whether to use our products? Of course we do. Dustin's materialism is the symmetry to the Hacker ethos of making, and if you think he's doing something wrong than you sir are no hacker.
  • fudged71 14y ago
    "The Best" that Dustin describes isn't built for "us". It doesn't even represent the highest of form and/or function. Merely the exhaustion of research into the topic. It's easy to be stuck in one field and obsessing over the smallest details, but I agree that it's good to branch out and see what obsession is happening in other fields. (In particular, consumer products). Although, remixing those ideas can get messy (see: Skeuomorphism).
• marknutter 14y ago
  When I was in fourth grade I bought a tri-fold leather wallet from target. My older brother wanted me to give it to him because he would need one for his permit some day but I refused. I've went on to use the wallet for 20 years before I finally retired it. It held my money and cards perfectly every day of those twenty years and I spent maybe 2 minutes picking it out. I paid around $20 for it. The point is, almost everything we buy these days is of pretty high quality - even the cheap stuff. Far more often do we throw away of give away perfectly good objects because we want to upgrade or because we no longer have a use for them than we do because they have stopped working. I can see the appeal of owning what you perceive to be "the best" of a particular item, but you're kidding yourself if you think it's somehow fulfilling. It's just stuff.
• heed 14y ago
  >What is ultimately important in life are people What's important in life is whatever you define is important.
• marknutter 14y ago
  I wonder how Dustin would react if he discovered that the company he bought the cutlery from was actually mass producing them and floating the whole "Japanese product designer from a family that made Samurai swords" story to help sell their product. Would it matter to him? Is he buying great silverware or a great story?
• Steko 14y ago
  Call me crazy but imho "most functional set of flatware in the world" will not have 2 forks and 2 spoons.
• ruswick 14y ago
  This reeks of pretention and arrogance. It's fairly obvious and intuitive that expensive things are nice and that you should pursue them. However, the overwhelming majority of people have neither the time nor the means to spend hours researching silverware or dropping $50 per set. Finding and paying for the best of anything requires more time, patience and income than most have. To me, it sounds as though Dustin has way too much time and way too much money, and hasn't a clue how to productively spend either. Upsetting.
  • fudged71 14y ago
    I'm sure many could afford to reduce the items they have to invest in proportionally more expensive alternative. My biggest worry is the time and obsessiveness behind this blog post; that, by the title alone, it's not even about "better quality", but rather the pinacle of all that is holy. If you wear the Socks from Gammarelli and drink beer exclusively from the smallest and oldest abbey you can find, you may feel like you rule the world with every step and every sip, but you will certainly lose grasp on reality and find yourself alone. >Last year, I met a Swiss dude with a taste for luxury. He smoked expensive European cigarettes. Drank the finest spirits. Attended opera by himself on evenings when he was enthralled by the program but could find no suitable companion. via http://www.slate.com/articles/life/shopping/2012/04/like_my_socks_they_cost_200_.html http://www.slate.com/articles/life/shopping/2012/04/like_my_...
• olalonde 14y ago
  I have the completely opposite experience. I find it much more stressful to own things that are high quality and expensive because I tend to worry more about such things. In general, I prefer to buy cheaper things knowing that I can easily afford to lose or break them. Anecdote: as a kid, I hated going over to some of my relatives' houses - the ones that owned a lot of expensive stuff. They always seemed so stressed out about me breaking something and got pretty angry when it happened. I don't want to become that kind of relative I guess.
  • kenneth_reitz 14y ago
    It's not about expense, it's about quality: the items he is surrounding himself with should ideally be extremely robust.
    • v21 14y ago
      You can lose robust things as easily as fragile things. Which is a facile point, but still, this all just stuff.
• dnos 14y ago
  I think the author is getting at something, but I don't think he articulated his thoughts too well -- or at least not well enough to be analyzed by the HN audience. To me, it came off as just pure garbage, spewing from a wealthy and/or insane person who cares more about the things he owns than what he actually does with those things, with a means of not necessarily communicating with others, but a way to convince their own self that it's OK to spend many hundreds of dollars on a flatware set. The type of thinking the author seems to be making an argument for can consume you. You will NEVER be happy if you filter the world like this. Sure, there's a time and place for it, but don't try to convince me that it was "liberating" when you spent $50 or whatever for a fork.
• chewxy 14y ago
  Not sure if this is helpful, but I wrote a long response to The Best: http://blog.chewxy.com/2012/11/08/the-best-really/ http://blog.chewxy.com/2012/11/08/the-best-really/ In this I raise the point of "the best" being a meaningless measure as we're actively bombarded by lack of information and other factors that make us terrible in making calls on whether something is "the best". I think it's rather hollow to claim that one wants 'the best' and yet doesn't discount in factors that makes one perceive something as 'the best'
• mcantelon 14y ago
  Man, those times my cutlery failed were rough. Glad someone's figuring out the big problems of life.
• jcromartie 14y ago
  I was going to say that not everybody can drop $200 on 4 table settings worth of flatware... But yeah, that's pretty much it. People living paycheck-to-paycheck really just can't afford the best because they have needs that pop up and make it next to impossible to save a lot of money when you can just as easily buy flatware that will last for years for $10 from a thrift store.
• trotsky 14y ago
  i respect a guy who doesn't give a shit what he owns about a million times more than this example of privilege and loneliness run amuck.
• leeoniya 14y ago
  who is upvoting this? why? hackernews has gone to shit.
  • swah 14y ago
    Interesting pg commented here saying hn has gone to shit too, but for criticizing the post.
    • leeoniya 14y ago
      i will re-quote from earlier in this thread. "People congregate around narcissists. The more epic the narcissism, the more epic the congregation. And it goes in the other direction too: epic congregation implies epic narcissism."
• deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
• kidfropro 14y ago
  As an aspiring minimalist, I agree with Dustin's premise but not in his universal application. I believe the goal is to maximize the utility of a purchase, including the cost of information. Spending an amazing amount of time researching features and the subsequent benefits and the combinations there of are extremely valuable for objects or services upon which we thoroughly rely. For anything less, it is just as important give equally less energy, if any at all.
• Fando 14y ago
  I love the philosophy! Many miss the point because they take the article literally. It's not about materialism, the article is about the benefit of cultivating a behavioural trait regarding the process by which one attains knowledge. It can pertain to something as simple as the craft of a fork or to a more abstract and complex idea such as the structure of industry. Thanks for the read.
• andrewartajos 14y ago
  The best is usually expensive.
• negamax 14y ago
  Is anybody else surprised by the hate mongering in the comments and losing the essence of the post altogether?
• Myrmornis 14y ago
  Neurotic materialism. Or a joke.
• goblin89 14y ago
  > These might seem like stupid things to worry about, but when you have trust in everything you own, you don’t have to worry about anything. It’s liberating and an amazing feeling. My life was markedly better because of it. Partly I agree, but I would simplify the statement: “You don't have to worry about anything. It's liberating and an amazing feeling.” While not worrying, if you notice your wallet falls apart, you may momentarily feel uncomfortable and next time buy a better wallet to avoid losing money. Should that be a reason to worry that you're using not the best wallet? That might be true for certain things. Losing money can make you significantly uncomfortable, depending on various factors. There's probably a good enough wallet, but buying the best might just save some time. Otherwise, IMO in the end it's up to you whether you worry or not. We can choose to alter the environment to be happier, or alter our outlook to achieve the same. I think it's mostly under our control, although may be limited by environment a person was raised in.
• MortenK 14y ago
  232 comments and counting, I never knew $10 utensils could be such an intriguing and polarizing subject.
• aldopinga 14y ago
  hn algoritm...
• brasmasus 14y ago
  Wow, polarizing. Seems like the opposition is mostly reacting to the idea of intensively researching to find 'the best'...but why not let Dustin and those that think like him do what they want with their time? Once you find someone like that, you can take their advice instead of doing the research. And all this grief is pretty ironic considering the love for tech fetish sites like anandtech and tomshardware. Moreover, given the option, why _wouldn't you_ want to surround yourself with art that you appreciate at every glance?
• SonicSoul 14y ago
  i tend to agree with this philosophy. although i don't spend as much time as OP in selecting the perfect item, I do agree that finding something of great quality will pay dividends for years to come. My dad bought the very best Sony tv he could find when he came to America in the 80's, and that thing was still in use (and looking good!) up until a few years ago. In this example it actually saved us money, but in other cases (i.e. my first nice car), it just brought lots of joy to use it every single day.
• engtech 14y ago
  I feel that the article and all of the comments missed an important point. As a designer, taking this approach of investing effort into learning about an item enough that he can pick out the best example of it isn't just a form of mental masturbation. Because his passion is design, he is exercising his passion and also building up the depth and breadth of his knowledge of design. Analogies would be a musician wanting to learn how to identify the best songs (even in different genres of music compared to what he writes), an author wanting to read the best books, etc. I think Dustin made a mistake in saying insinuating this approach would be good for everyone, because he doesn't identify that as a designer he his getting all kinds of benefits from this approach that a non-designer would not get. I think he gets a lot more out of this than a fancy set of steak knives.
• shurcooL 14y ago
  Am I the only one who has seen this article before? Maybe it was a draft or not public (doubtful, because Dustin isn't close to me), but I'm sure I've read it or a similar version about a year ago.
• seeingfurther 14y ago
  I don't know what all the fuss is about. Dustin is clearly a minimalist and his essay flies in the face of our modern disposable economy. Maybe he didn't spell that out explicitly but it's implicit in his argument. I too won't own a product unless it markedly improves my life and I know it will last the test of time (maybe not socks). I think people are confusing a pervasive cultural obsession of having to own the latest and greatest of EVERYTHING, with Dustin's idea of owning the perfect amount of the perfect thing.
• mbubb 14y ago
  Made me think of something that I havent in years. Kant's 'purposeful purposelessness' - a definition of the aesthetic purpose. Buying 20 sets of cutlery is most definately hyperbole (or no tit doesnt matter) - I think mapgrep is mistaken to link this idea to Steve Jobs and the couch... It is one thing to be an audiophile to have the best stereo; it is another altogether if you love sound. I like the idea from the article. Made me think of the process of selectign a 'go bag' but not for emergencies, for eternity. I am glad such madness exists and I am not insulted by it. I am no there but I get the impulse.