Products Made Today Aren’t Built to Last

My parents love antiques. When we’d visit Vermont, I‘d want to hike a dirt trail but instead had to meander over creaky floorboards in antique shops. The archaic locals that ran the stores would eye me with suspicion, thinking I was going to sneak out with a 400-pound oak dresser. On one trip I found something that I still have today, a 1929 Royal Typewriter.

I was 12 when I got it and had to convince my parents that using a credit card on eBay was okay. Eventually, they caved and I was able to order ink ribbons for the functional antique. I wrote and wrote and wrote. It was more satisfying to type on than any Mac could ever be (I now write with a mechanical keyboard to get this similar effect). It never needed maintenance, any oiling, resetting, it worked perfectly. The weight of the thing, its steel innards reflect a time when things were overbuilt. Minimalism wasn’t a part of design thinking back then, it was barely a word.†

Overbuilt Objects = Perennial Products

How long have you had your cell phone? People brag if they’ve made it two years without upgrading. Here’s the thing, not everything needs to be discarded for something better.

What would happen if we looked at the things we are building with the mission that they last 50 or 100 years? How would this influence what we do today?

I’m sure our process would shift. Whether we’re building something physical or digital, we can add robustness to it. After all, when we see that the thing we’re building is ready to stand the test of time, it will make the process more rewarding than ever.

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Works Cited

† 2018. “Google Books Ngram Viewer.” Google.com. Google Inc. September 27. Accessed 2018. https://books.google.com/ngrams/