> Is this some kind of a trend that I'm not up to date with?
It's called planned obsolescence and it's part of the factory-to-landfill pipeline. It's not exactly new.
Do we know how to make a long lasting laptop fan? Yes. Would nearly every consumer pay $0.25 more for a laptop with a longer lasting fan? Yes. Can you buy laptops with high quality fans? Yes, but seemingly only by dumb luck.
By the time you figure out that a product has a high failure part the company will no longer be manufacturing it and therefore reviews won't be relevant (granting relative immunity to bad reviews). And when every brand is doing it, there's no way for "free market" competition to sort it out. It's a race to the bottom. (3. 2. 1. Cue "The morality of protecting share holders eclipses the morality of ripping consumers off.")
I only buy used laptops now. The significant reduction in price is a reduction in risk. Also a used product has had "burn in" time to weed out the lemons. The engineer calculated xx% of fail-early laptops often aren't the ones being resold.
I'm bitter. I'm cynical. Despite being aware of my mind's ability to find patterns to confirm my biases... I'm really struggling to be excited about new products. I'm spent like nuclear fuel; I'm toxic. They say knowing is half the battle... not in psychology. Doesn't help me a damned bit.
Today's sponsor is Better Help. I should just stop now.
It's called planned obsolescence and it's part of the factory-to-landfill pipeline. It's not exactly new.
Do we know how to make a long lasting laptop fan? Yes. Would nearly every consumer pay $0.25 more for a laptop with a longer lasting fan? Yes. Can you buy laptops with high quality fans? Yes, but seemingly only by dumb luck.
By the time you figure out that a product has a high failure part the company will no longer be manufacturing it and therefore reviews won't be relevant (granting relative immunity to bad reviews). And when every brand is doing it, there's no way for "free market" competition to sort it out. It's a race to the bottom. (3. 2. 1. Cue "The morality of protecting share holders eclipses the morality of ripping consumers off.")
I only buy used laptops now. The significant reduction in price is a reduction in risk. Also a used product has had "burn in" time to weed out the lemons. The engineer calculated xx% of fail-early laptops often aren't the ones being resold.
I'm bitter. I'm cynical. Despite being aware of my mind's ability to find patterns to confirm my biases... I'm really struggling to be excited about new products. I'm spent like nuclear fuel; I'm toxic. They say knowing is half the battle... not in psychology. Doesn't help me a damned bit.
Today's sponsor is Better Help. I should just stop now.