That’s not how planned obsolescence actually functions, nor is planned obsolescence as awful a practice as it sounds like it is. It’s just a way to lower costs by producing things that don’t need to last, meaning you don’t need to over-design them or put things in place that would unnecessarily spike prices.
Nor is it just a free market thing. Tanks (yeah the big military machines) are planned to render themselves obsolete, as are most policies, designs and theories. Things that are expected to break or be outdated are almost always designed to fit to a specific limit at which point they don’t really need to run anymore. It’s why things like the T34 weren’t designed to run for fifteen years and it’s why phones have a short lifespan. It’s why people who make policy pretty much never make policy that extends beyond their own terms, hence why the only consistent states are un-democratic ones.
So if we’re looking at something like an iPhone, you’re spending the extra money for the apps and the design. If you wanted a phone, you’d buy a practical phone. But the inbuilt technology on your iPhone isn’t going to be good enough for the apps that will come out in 3-5 years, meaning that making it last more than five years is a huge waste of money since the extras you bought it for aren’t going to work a the end of its lifespan anyway. You’re going to have to update it. If that doesn’t interest you, buy something that isn’t designed to be a cutting edge piece of tech and is instead designed to last.
(My first reply crashed my phone lol topical)
The difference between tanks being obsolete and consumer products should be obvious and honestly I don’t even know what lead you to make this comparison.
Consumers buy something because they think it’s high quality and built to last. It is in a consumer’s interest for something to be built well, not die from being dropped once when it doesn’t have to.
Planned obsolescence in the electronics industry is entirely unecessary and it’s crazy people haven’t made it more of an issue, considering it’s not in anyone’s interest but the company. This is not done to “keep costs down”, but go ahead and try to tell me Apple products are cheap. It’s done to bring in as much profit as possible at the expense of innovation. Apple has actually admitted to this funnily enough, but people like yourself who somehow feel the need to defend multinationals don’t care.
It is also bad for the environment: Consumers aren’t the only losers here, the environment is too. “Due to a lack of clear economic incentives and methods, globally only 12% of smartphone upgrades involve older devices being sold or traded for the new one. This means ecologically damaging devices end up languishing in drawers and eventually landfills.”
Always be vague. Say I think they’re in today or not until later. If they press say it’s company policy not to give out the schedule. Most companies do have this and even if they don’t how would a stranger know. Don’t give out specifics, they can get people injured or even killed.
At my last job someone came up and asked when “Sarah” was working next. I didn’t tell him and then texted her a description, turns out he was an abusive ex who had been stalking her. Don’t do this shit please.
I work at a sex shop and this kinda shit happens constantly. when I first started out there was this one girl working here who was pretty and friendly and not good at telling people to fuck off so she had a whole litany of stalkers who would try to get me to tell them when she was in. for random people who I didn’t know anything about I would literally pretend not to know who she was (like “oh, I’m new so I don’t actually know all the girls who work here” all wide-eyed and innocent lmao), but there were some recurring creeps who knew she worked there and wanted her schedule: for those guys I would say I wasn’t permitted to give out that information or that I didn’t know, and if they persisted I’d call them the fuck out, and ban them if they still didn’t back down.
most of the guys after her were easy to spot (it was usually the old creeps who rented stepdaughter porn) but one time it was an 18 year old from the nearby college who said the two of them had plans and he was supposed to meet her there today. I played dumb and got as much info off him as I could by asking him questions under the pretense of conversation. it didn’t take very long for him to expose himself: he started talking about how beautiful she was and how he wanted to date her and when I said “oh, I thought she had a boyfriend?” he said “no, most girls with boyfriends have pictures of them all over social media and she doesn’t have any pictures of a guy on her instagram or facebook, even as far back as 2014” and then he pulled up her instagram profile and started talking about how he’d shown his mom pictures of her and his mom thought she looked “slutty” but he didn’t care. then he hung around the shop for 5 whole hours waiting for her before giving up (she wasn’t even in that day lmao but I let him suffer). I made sure to get his name “so I can tell her if I see her!” and then when he left I contacted camera crew for his picture and messaged the girl about the situation. she didn’t have plans with him. she didn’t know how he got her social media. she was really fucking creeped out. we banned his ass and put his picture on our wall of shame.
stalkers don’t have one easily identifiable look so don’t ever give out your coworkers info, no matter how convincing or benign the person you’re dealing with is. if someone is actually related to or friends with your coworker, they’ll have a way to contact them independent of their job. if possible, also get as much info about the person inquiring as possible so that you can adequately warn your coworker and/or file a report on them. don’t let your friendliness enable stalkers and abusers.
shout out to the patient I called to remind to pick up their medication, whose voicemail message was “HEWWO? HEWWO?? WHO IS THIS??? WEAVE A MESSAGE” that rang out throughout the whole pharmacy, killing me instantly
the old-timers I played with back in Iowa used to say “it’s good enough for folk music” when we got tired of tuning and now it’s entered my vocabulary as an all-purpose useful phrase for beating back perfectionism.
sure, i could make this closer to perfect if i put in more time and effort and there might be circumstances under which that’s a good idea, but for now i’ll get more joy and use out of it if i just accept the kind of wonky version and keep going.
like sitting watching a movie and he just kinds of drags his fingers over your skin while watching and he doesn’t have a motive he’s not trying to tickle you or be sexual with you he’s just touching your skin and feeling the shape of your bones under that skin like it’s physically comforting for him to know that you’re there right under his fingertips im so
