1.10.2009

Rant: They Don't Build Things LIke They Used To

It's about time I write something insightful. Before things turn sour, a quick shout-out to Jonny Cota from SkinGraft Designs. I'm loving the sleek new website. Easy to navigate, and I enjoy the focus on events. I still wish I could afford those clothes, though! (And wish I had the body to wear them... goddamn you, holiday weight gain!) Now, on topic...

I had the fortune of breaking my iPod recently. I also replaced the keyboard of my Dell Latitude two days ago. That's the third or fourth time I've had work done to my primary machine. Poor Phineas has been through an orange juice spill, the abrupt failure of a charger, the eventual fail of a battery, a short circuiting during shutdown, and the slow smoothing of the plastic on his keyboard. All in two and a half years. It's costing me a fortune. What's the point in having a warranty if it barely covers anything? It will cost $100 to repair the iPod which I got less than two months ago. This calls into question, though, not the nature of warranties (which, in my mind, are built to cover everything but what happens) or the nature of my klutziness, but the nature of design. Where are our principles taking us?

I had an interview yesterday at a certain empire-like corporation. That's right, Microsoft. The digs were nice - free food, laid back people, shuttles going everywhere, five-star hotel with incredibly attractive doorman. Seeing real pine trees was a plus for an east-coaster like myself. I think it went pretty well, and I learned as much about them as they did about me - and maybe a little more about this world as a whole.

I should clarify that I didn't interview for a programmer position. I went for "Program Manager" - the shortest way I can explain it is you design a feature within the program you're working on. Scheduling meetings and documentation are secondary. The key is you are a designer. For all twenty-odd classes I've taken at an Ivy League University the key, designer’s, "takeaway" is this: Know your consumer. While I agree, there is something to be said about the way human beings consume.

They consume an awful lot. An epidemic of obesity can't solely be blamed on hormonal imbalances. The number of people who won't turn off their computers overnight borders on - in my mind - ridiculous. A friend once told me she didn't eat meat because it was "inefficient." To make a cow, said cow must consume grain - let's say 500lbs of corn for a 100lb cow. A human can get 1000 calories by eating 1lb of corn or 1lb of cow. Why use an extra 499lbs of corn if a human being can attain the same energy from one? At first, I thought that was ridiculous, but now, I see her point.

What is the shelf-life of a computer? I feel this period is getting shorter and shorter. To my surprise, my old machines still chug along while I my newly-released laptop get fixed so often, it seems like it gets a check-up. My mother watches YouTube videos on a machine from the 90s. It's slow and loud but perfectly functional. Same goes for our color printer.

At Microsoft, they follow deadlines. A product need not be perfect as long as it caters to 80% of the market. Look at the latest Word - bold, italic, underline, all right there. But if you need letting or line height… good luck. In this case, the rule makes sense. Not too many people will care about line height. I mean, there's no Resume Formatters Union. But in the larger scope, should we have so many deadlines to begin with? Should we force ourselves to consume? It is a principle of technology business that once everyone else gets faster, you must get faster, too.

Our younger generation has become spoiled with instant gratification - cell phones, messengers, fast food, credit cards. But do we really need a new video game every month or a new computer every year? If we took the time with our development cycles, we could certainly make things last longer. Better yet, if we slowed down and took a look at the material culture around us, we could sort out what's important - what's 'new' and ‘fast’ versus what's actually 'good.'

Erik, Arik, Rich, Devindra, if you are reading this, it was fun talking with you guys and coming up with ideas. Thanks for the opportunity.

Art post soon. I drew a lot on my trip. :) The Puget Sound is a lovely area, by the by. Sitting next to crying babies on the plane is not-so-lovely.

2 comments:

Jinny Liang said...

Very true Grace. My politics teacher talked about the great amount of crops we have to waste just to feed the cows so we can eat meat. This being one of the reasons why he became a vegetarian.

I agree, there is way too much overconsumption. Everything seems to update too quickly. If you buy a cell phone this year, in only a year or two it is already outdated, and the newest phones have even more features. However, the super old 5+ years old green screen cell phone my dad uses functions fine as a phone and it's battery life lasts over a week (7 days) no problem. My phone I got only 3 years ago has maybe 5 days if I'm lucky. And Kevin's new phone he just got only lasts 3-4 days, and this is just for using it as a clock or to set an alarm. Can't we get a new phone that doesn't do too much, and has the vitals for phone conversation and long battery life??

I long stopped buying new computers every 2-3 years. I think it is a conspiracy that every program and OS keeps requiring even higher specs, rendering your current computer that was fast to begin with down into a miserable snail's pace. I still use MS Office 2000 and I am quite happy with it. I don't have much interest in upgrading MS Office or from my XP SP3 into Vista or Windows 7 (unless it offers something way more significant like XP did to Windows 98 to Windows 3.1)

And I don't bother buying into Ipods. For the reason that they have to update their products every year rendering your Ipod into last year's obselete. You also don't feel as cool because you don't have the latest model of the iPhone or the iTouch. It's ridiculous to me.

I hope you get that position at Microsoft. I think you would be able to bring a really unique viewpoint to their organization. Who knows, it might make an impact somewhere down the road towards less consumerism. As we already know, our earth cannot take anymore of our overconsumption, and there will soon be not enough resources for so many frivilous objects of consumption.

*wow.. I think I wrote alot XD;;*

P said...

Actually, I think Dell is just making suckier and suckier computers. I have a friend who just got a Dell laptop for Christmas, and already, something has gone wrong with the motherboard, the soundcard, and the battery. You could call it bad luck, but our roommate A just got her Dell laptop over the summer, and it's been malfunctioning as well. You make the third or fourth person I know who's been unhappy with their Dell.

And not that I'm defending the quality of Apple products, but you do have to admit that your iPod was used and most likely stolen, so who knows how previous owners could've handled it?

I'm not sure if it's that they don't make things like they used to--it may be more companies cheaping out on products in attempt to cash in on the latest craze. They churn out products to the masses eager to consume (a point you made that I definitely agree with), which look like the high quality ones, but may not be of the same quality. And unfortunately, not too many people know enough about technology, and may fall for the slightly cheaper and crappy version of the product.

So no, we don't need a new videogame every month, but there'll never be a shortage of competition, especially in an industry like the gaming industry. There are always going to be competitors who want to be as successful and profitable as the established gaming giants, but who may not have the manpower, resources, or patience, so they make what they can, which sometimes turns out to be a product of lesser quality.

Also unfortunately, the day most people place reason and efficiency over their desires and wants is a day that may never come...pessimistic and sad, but most likely very true. :\