28 Aug 2009
The Good Enough Revolution: When Cheap and Simple Is Just Fine

I disagree: it is the crapification of everything. And what's more, we've been here before: during the American Civil War (not coincidentally just after the start of our Industrial Revolution) great fortunes were made by Northern factory owners throwing together cheap equipment for the military, and eventually flooding the marketplace with it as well.

The world has seen its iron age, its silver age, its golden age and its bronze age. This is the age of shoddy.
—New York Times, April 3,1861

History doesn't necessarily repeat itself, but sometimes it does throw a big roundhouse punch ... but I guess we'd better get used to things that don't really work, can't be repaired, and just generally suck. I only hope we have the landfill space to hold the detritus until we come to our collective senses again.

To some, it looks like the crapification of everything. But it's really an improvement. And businesses need to get used to it, because the Good Enough revolution has only just begun.

(link) [Wired]

08:39 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link