Is there a solution for planned obsolescence? \ stacker news ~AskSN

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Is there a solution for planned obsolescence?

446 sats \ 19 comments \ @Aardvark 11h AskSN

Nothing lasts anymore, and it's intensional. I'm not just talking about electronics either, it's everything. Clothes fall apart, pain washes off of measuring cups, furniture goes flat and falls apart.

Is there any way to get back to an era when you could buy something that would last years or decades?

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35 sats \ 3 replies \ @kilianbuhn 9h

Electronics is hard bc there just isn't something better than what everyone buys for many categories.

But clothes is easy - you buy the manufacturers that one has to be in the know or the few brands that still do high quality. E.g. workwear, leather, denim this is easy to find

Furniture too. If you buy ikea trash, that's your own fault. Go find a carpenter.

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @Aardvark OP 9h

Electronics are made to be incredibly hard to repair....

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @optimism 9h

ifixit is pretty awesome

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kilianbuhn 9h

Basically for many categories just go into enthusiast spaces. Audiophiles for headphones. Or a boating club for boating equipment.... you get the gist of it 😂

For a few categories the exclusivity to rich people is the point. They charge so much money because customers like that you are excluded. This is true for e.g. art, mosaic craftsmen, jewlery, watches are a famous example, partially in clothes. Real estate is a big one in this category. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

33 sats \ 0 replies \ @south_korea_ln 9h

This seems to be something @kr has thought a lot about...

32 sats \ 0 replies \ @optimism 9h

Yes there is. Do not buy crap quality products and focus on tools, not stuff. MAINTAIN YOUR TOOLS.

And ffs stop being a dumbass consumer drone. Just get married and have your wife be a consumer in terms of shoes and dresses and vicariously enjoy the consumerism through her if you have to.

39 sats \ 0 replies \ @stack_harder 11h

i dont think so becuase it's in the economic interests of all companies to do it

either that, or they'll make something to last for real, then will charge a fucking subscription for it!

i think most likely it will actually be bad quality products AND a subscription

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @j7hB75 3h

I would recommend watching the documentary "Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy" that's available on Netflix.

42 sats \ 7 replies \ @denlillaapan 5h

I was under the impression that "planned obsolescence" was a left-wing, anti-capitalist myth...?

so... answering the question: no need.

50 sats \ 0 replies \ @optimism 3h

It's literally something many companies do that ships physical products (especially electronics) and you're often forced to by your supply chain. Real life example:

I was consulting a company that designed and manufactured parking meters and those were powered by a little board running Windows CE 5. Unfortunately this board could not run Windows CE 6 (which did not exist at the time the product was designed) and at some point MS stopped supporting CE 5 so there were no more updates. This was pretty bad because (a) vulnerabilities weren't fixed anymore and (b) when the US changed the DST rules in 2007, all these things were tracking the wrong internal time for a couple of weeks per year.

So learning from that, the product manager decided that the lifecycle of a parking meter would now be limited by the rated OS of the main board's support cycle and 2 years before the end of a cycle a new model had to be ready for production. Most often "upgrade solutions" included upgrade kits where the customer would basically buy new guts for the device, but in the end, yes, this is planned obsolescence and it is standard practice.

28 sats \ 5 replies \ @Aardvark OP 5h

Unfortunately, there's probably a bit of truth to your statement. I know that it's a talking point for the anti-capitalist crowd, although it doesn't necessarily make them incorrect. Their solutions however, tend to be pretty horrific.

21 sats \ 4 replies \ @denlillaapan 4h

No? As in, its a thing?

Can somebody show me the smoking gun, please?

21 sats \ 3 replies \ @Aardvark OP 4h

The smoking gun that is planned obsolescence? Ok. How about the fact that you can't replace the batteries in your ear buds.

21 sats \ 2 replies \ @denlillaapan 4h

Yeah, gimme the actual planning document. If its planned, let us see the planners' idea. I'll wait.

(Per Occam's razor, it just seems an easier explanation to invoke (cost) efficiency or tech optionality)

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Aardvark OP 4h

Apple has been sued and admitted it purposely slowed iPhones down. The company has since settled with the class actions and admitted this was the case.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batterygate#:~:text=Apple%20has%20been%20sued%20and,admitted%20this%20was%20the%20case.

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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Aardvark OP 4h

Occam's razor, if i was selling something, I'd want it to break and be replaced. How is that not pretty simple?

If you want me to have access to internal documents stating that people are intentionally acting in their own best interests, I can't provide you one from a current company. Although, again, if i was a company, I wouldn't be broadcasting that particular feature.

There certainly is historical documentation of this behavior https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel#:~:text=The%20Phoebus%20cartel%20was%20an,an%20example%20of%20planned%20obsolescence.

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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @nkmg1c_ventures 7h

Check out "buy it for life" products. The planned obsolescence comes from scientific management of business. If you want a quality <x> in category <y> you should look at companies that are expressly doing that as part of their vision for quality. It's kind of one of those things that unless you aim for quality and guard against profits at the expense of quality, the company will tend towards planned obsolescence. But companies do exist in many of these areas (furniture, cars, etc). Harder money over time would also help, upstream

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @itsrealfake 8h

measuring cups with paint on them? get metal.

look for old used stuff at antique /vintage stores.

buy less

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @fiatbad 4h

It's a fiat problem.

Planned obsolescence is a direct result of planned monetary system.