In this increasingly "politically correct" world where nobody seems eligible to be different from anyone else — lest someone gets offended — I find myself increasingly "offended" by the way such concepts as "The Average Person" is becoming more and more part of the landscape.
This morning, I was working with some photo editing software and griping a bit about the various features it lacked, and my colleague burst out saying:
"Well, the Average Person just doesn't need those features..."
Pardon Me, but I Don't Care!
Growing up, I was taught that "generalizing" was a bad idea and that I would be wiser to moderate my language with qualifiers like MOST people, instead of just saying PEOPLE and such.
I feel pretty much the same way about "The Average Person," because it has been my experience of life that there actually is no such thing as average. And to the extent that there might actually be such a thing as "average," I sure as hell am not it!
And don't get me wrong... I'm not so intellectually stunted as to not be aware that when you are creating a product — like software — you have to draw a line somewhere, in order to limit just how many bits and pieces you decide your product needs to include.
So why does "average" get me so riled up?
Flowers coming to life in our garden...
Averageness Limits Choice...
To me, one of the better examples of "averageness" would be giant retailer Wal-Mart.
Wallyworld manages to maintain bargain basement prices by pretty broadly avoiding anything but middle-of-the-road products that are pretty much guaranteed to be "popular."
Because of the way it conducts business, it leaves in its wake tens of thousands of failed "specialty stores" where you could get the interesting and unique and definitely-not-average.
The likes of Wal-Mart — and what that type of organization represents, philosophically speaking — are also a large part of the reason we now buy and new toaster when the old one stops working... rather than getting it repaired. Because you pretty much can't buy an above-average toaster that would be worth repairing, rather than throwing away... anymore.
And frankly, I don't like that kind of waste!
Strawberries blooming in our back yard...
They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To!
I still remember a fellow named Floyd Putnam who had a small appliance repair shop when I still lived in Austin, Texas, back in the 1990's. Mr. Putnam could fix pretty much anything, and usually for less than $20... but even he saw the writing on the wall:
"I can't fix these new-fangled pieces of plastic crap," he'd say, "it's just a cheap circuit board attached to the thinnest sheet metal. They don't make 'em like they used to!"
Mr. Putnam was nearing retirement age (OK, so he was mid-70's, but who's counting?) when I moved to Washington state, but I we well aware that he was slowly becoming a victim of too many "average" toasters, irons, space heaters and other small appliances mostly made of plastic.
I think about Mr. Putnam from time to time... and it makes me consider the question whether we — as a society; as a species — are really better off because we can buy a chintzy hair dryer for $12 that needs to be replaced every 3-4 years... rather than spend $50 on one we keep for 20 years... because it IS made "the way they used to be?"
I don't have the answer, by the way... but it does make you think...
Thanks for reading!
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Created at 190504 02:11 PST
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