Comment by RataNova
1 day ago
It's wild to think we used to build things to last decades. Now we build them to chase benchmarks for the next quarter
1 day ago
It's wild to think we used to build things to last decades. Now we build them to chase benchmarks for the next quarter
Did we, though? I am just not convinced.
A lot of cheap stuff through history that was definitely not made to last. I had paper dolls as a child. So did my mother. Probably her mother too - I'd ask, but she's dead.
How long do you expect a car to last? 100k miles (160k km), at least? It wasn't all that long ago that they were dead at 100k.
They used to add talc and sawdust to bread because they were cheaper than flour. Talk about chasing a quick buck. I very highly doubt they even cared about the next quarter. More realistically, things were built using the cheapest parts they could to make what they wanted - and they wanted things that would sell. Sure, some made things nicer than others but that's no different now.
Most of the things that we have now - old fridges, chairs, and so on - are flukes. They survived despite the odds.
Would most people even know if an MP3 player was built to last? How about an ink pen?
I think a lot of people conflate "built to last" with "ability to be repaired by yourself."
To continue the car analogy, I could replace almost any part easily, with simple tools I have at home, on my 1990 GMC 1500 truck. Parts are plentiful and cheap, plenty of room to work on the engine, nothing is hidden inside black boxes. It's got 280k miles on it and still running great.
To contrast that with my 2020 Subaru Crosstrek hybrid, is much more difficult to work on, can't even fit my hands to access anything that's not on the top of the engine, other repairs requiring full engine removal and specialized tools. There's more electronics and more completely sealed systems.
Same can be said about some household appliances, and even computers. Not only were things, generally more repairable, but repair didn't require specialized tools in most cases, we didn't have to first melt glue, resolder SSDs, etc.
My old compaq Armada may not have been built to last at the time, but it was certainly stupid easy to repair and replace every single component in it.
Good furniture was inherited and lasted a very long time even across generations.
For a while I still used a wonderful and thick winter (loden) coat originally owned by my great-grandfather, from the early 20th century.
Dishes and silverware. Toys, books. Tools. A modern hammer looks much more fancy but it works no better than an ancient dwarven-made one that gives you +10 strength when used. Musical instruments. Some kitchen utensils, especially ones used for traditional cooking and food preservation methods.
Boots and shoes! They were repaired repeatedly (that also means they were easily repairable, not so easy with current shoes and their materials and layers).
Computing hardware has always been on 3-5 year depreciation schedules. Not because it doesn't last, most of it will last decades, but because the next generation is so much better that your total costs for the next three years are lower if you buy new gear and throw the old stuff away.
And that's not just because of the rapid advances, but also because servers are expensive to run relative to their purchase price, and setup costs are cheap. For machining tools setup costs can be substantial, and the cost of keeping an old machine around is small
We still do. I think the Service Life of a Toyota Landcruiser is still 25 years. As a software developer, I've written control code for instruments that are expected to be on the market for at least 15-20 years from initial release and we have to plan Support and spare parts accordingly.
It's just that the fast-paced, built to last 6 months stuff gets all the good press.
Deregulation and firms like Bain capital (Romney) parted out all those corporations to china.
You see the same process that destroyed Toys r Us and Sears more recently.
This was all on purpose to extract whatever could from the corpse or USA manufacturing
I have a 4790k based machine standing unused by my desk (going to get the data off it and then get rid of it). Today's processors are so much better that if you used this one you'd be losing money on power.