simplicity and gadgets
Almost 30 years before Joel Johnson wrote this scathing blog entry about people buying gadgets that overpromise and underdeliver, Richard Foster basically said the same thing (minus a few vulgarities) in his excellent book Celebration of Discipline.
Foster give us ten controlling principles for the outward expression of simplicity. Part of the fourth reads as follows:
..refuse to be propagandized by the custodians of modern gadgetry. Timesaving devices almost never save time. Beware of the promise, “it will pay for itself in six months.” Most gadgets are built to break down and wear out and so complicate our lives rather than enhance them…. Propagandists try to convince us that because the newest model of this or that has a new feature (trinket? ), we must sell the old one and buy the new one….. Often “new” features seduce us into buying what we do not need.
I think Foster is right on here. We have been held captive by the companies marketing to us for too long. How much different is this year’s model than last year’s? I think Joel gets it right in the gizmodo post when he says:
Stop buying this crap. Just stop it. You don’t need it. Wait a year until the reviews come out and the other suckers too addicted to having the very latest and greatest buy it, put up a review, and have moved on to something else. Stop buying broken products and then shrugging your shoulders when it doesn’t do what it is supposed to. Stop buying products that serve any other master than you. Use older stuff that works. Make it yourself. Only buy new stuff from companies that have proven themselves good servants of their customers in the past. Complaining online about this stuff helps, but really, just stop buying it.
If we followed this advice, we might see a slower trickle of new products, but I’m willing to bet they would be better, would fit our needs, and would maybe actually change our lives.