I canceled my subscription today.
Toothbrush as a Service or Little Rant About Essentialism, Recycling, and Other Stuff
Today is Memorial Day for Anti-Fascist Struggle, so I have a moment to reflect on WWII and the current events I see around.
Subscribtions
A long time ago, software companies invented subscription services. Instead of having your basic business infrastructure, you subscribe to one. I am okay with such a concept, up to some extent. What they invented after that is different monthly and yearly subscriptions, some even lifetime; someone in that company should look for the term “high-ticket” in a dictionary.
I prefer monthly payment as long as the monthly rate has a value. Let me check for a few examples; I pay around ten USD for Google Workspace, almost the same amount for Microsoft Office 365. Both packages got value for me (I use them for different purposes, so they are not redundant).
The Evernote Case
But what in the hell do guys in Evernote think? 13 EUR for that piece of something that should be categorized as “jack of all trades, master of none.” I think I made the first note in Evernote the same day “The First Orbit” appeared publicly. I might be willing to pay 13 EUR yearly. They just stuffed poor software with useless features over the years, but let’s get money for nothing.
I cannot understand such a move, but it is not my company; I am not a stakeholder. Sometimes I wonder who uses Evernote for collaboration. I never met such a person. 20+ years ago, I built an enterprise-level system based on today’s Microsoft SharePoint. It was still in Beta, codenamed “Tahoe.”
They made me NEVER look into Evernote direction due to the horrible price/performance ratio. You suck, guys, and whoever approved the new pricing scheme is, well, an idiot.
Toothbrush As A Service
I was in Split, Croatia, in February, doing on-site process screening. I received an interesting mail. Offering a toothbrush as a service. Okaaaayyyy… The basic idea is to pay 3 EUR monthly and get a fresh bamboo-made toothbrush by post. What the heck? I will give it a try. Price-wise, it is somewhere in the middle. In local Drogerie Markt, the cheapest toothbrush is just over 1 EUR, and the most expensive is 6,60 EUR.
One more thing. They do not care about nature, recycling, and a higher purpose.
What is their selling point? Of course, plastic; the media is hype about microplastic these days, and I know we should do something about it. But how exactly do I recycle a wooden toothbrush with a plastic brush? I will not. It will finish in the wrong place. I am sure about that. Whatever I do — it will not be recycled. But plastic one will be. I am unsure about your part of the World, but recycling is a regular thing in Europe.
But there is another thing. The bamboo-made toothbrush is terrible. In two days, you will adapt to a strange taste, but the plastic brush hurt my gum and tooth.
Okay, fine. Let us get just a little deeper into it. Tooth health is essential. Not only because we have to eat but in general. And I can get one of the best toothbrushes ever from Curaprox for a few EUR more. And I can recycle it. It is made that way.
I struggled for a few months and told myself to eliminate it. It is not good for my health, the nature, and the complete concept is based on consumerism.
Disturbing Realization (not so disturbing, I wrote that to sound dramatic)
Now, when I look around, companies strive to sell only subscriptions. I understand that, secure the cash flow, and you are fine. What they will have to think about is the value. You know, I have a brain and can make my own decision. Have you seen what carmakers are doing? I know you did. A corporate guy with an MBA (Master of Bullshit Administration) had a great idea; let us sell seat heating as a service.
I am not buying it. It will diversify the market. In such a scenario, I can get the whole car as a service. It is called rent a car and has been known as a concept for the last decades. They take care of your car, tires, oil, whatever, and you pay for that. Nice concept, if you ask me. Again, it depends on where you live, but there are many European cities where having a car is not necessary. Furthermore, it is somewhat troublesome.
Nonartifical Lack of Intelligence
So, will companies get to the level of selling subscriptions for anything? No. As long as people will use their brains, we will be fine. Things come and go. Six months ago, we were overwhelmed with articles that Artificial (so-called) Intelligence will replace us all and that everything is doomed to fail.
What have we got now? The sudden strike that models behind are bad, the used data is crap, and the result is a complete disaster. Machines can replace you in your workplace. As well as a monkey can.
It is a non-working day here in Croatia — memorial day for Anti-Fascist Struggle. Great day to take a book and read about what the real hell was in 1939–1945.
Rethink about that and not AI and similar crap.
No one is working tomorrow.
Time to rant. Time to create.
