Don't forget the TV. I quit watching TV about 9 years ago. I haven't missed it at all. I get a lot more done.I'm thinking that if we didn't spend soo much time sitting in traffic and standing in stupid lines,Sufing the internet...
JKJ
Moderator
Don't forget the TV. I quit watching TV about 9 years ago. I haven't missed it at all. I get a lot more done.I'm thinking that if we didn't spend soo much time sitting in traffic and standing in stupid lines,Sufing the internet...
JKJ
Member
One of my favorite examples of a feat of military engineering that only had to last a VERY short while: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailey%27s_DamOriginally Posted by Mike Henderson
Short version: A Union naval squadron in the Civil War was trapped up-river of some shallows and in imminent danger of capture. They (actually the army units they were supporting) built a dam to increase the depth of the shallows, then breached the center and sailed through.
Last edited by Patrick Chase; 05-14-2016 at 12:51 PM.
Contributor
The issue is how much of the stuff made today should be around and in use in a couple of hundred years. The lifespan of a cell phone today is a couple of years - not because it won't last longer but because a better one with more features will be available in that time. Soon a cellphone will be able to understand our speech just like a person but that will take more powerful processors and better software.
Even furniture - If I'm a young person starting a household, I don't want to pay for some furniture that will last for a couple of hundred years. I want something that's in my price range and will last for the length of time that I need it to.
Quality is when something is built to meet the need of the customer. Too many people have failed in business because they were making a quality product to their definition, not to the definition of the customer. If a customer wants a product that will last for 10 years and cost $x, you're not going to be successful if you build something that will last 20 years and costs more.
Look around - how much of the things you use today would you want to still be using in even 25 years?
Mike
Last edited by Mike Henderson; 05-14-2016 at 5:57 PM.
Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.
Contributor
Mike, it's surprising even to me but many many people do not think about buying a product that is not a forever product. People buying Herman Miller, Knoll, Cassina, etc expect to have it for a very long time.
The furniture I own that I have bought, rather than having made, I bought it expecting it will last my lifetime with a reupholster or two along the way.
There are customers who only buy lifetime level quality. In fact I'd be surprised if anyone buying studio furniture did so expecting it to last less than a lifetime.
Last edited by Brian Holcombe; 05-14-2016 at 3:30 PM.
Bumbling forward into the unknown.
Contributor
Absolutely. There are people who want lifetime furniture. Just not a lot of them. Certainly not enough to support all the woodworkers who would like to make a living making custom furniture.
The people who are making money in woodworking are those who make (actually, install) kitchen cabinets. And those are certainly not lifetime products.
Mike
Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.
Contributor
Once heard a wise person say, "if you make a product mostly for the higher classes you will live among the masses. If you make a product for the masses, you will live among the higher classes."
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Contributor
Mike, I'm not limiting my comments to studio furniture, but also lifetime (give or take) furniture that is production made. There are still companies like Carl Hansen & Son going strong making classic designs.
The ones that survived changed their approach once and began appealing to luxury consumers and commercial installations.
I've heard the same with regard to cabinet work.
Bumbling forward into the unknown.
Member
I find it amazing that people of past times and before wholesale use of machinery had the endurance to work the long hours they did because their diet and health could not have been good especially when they began to age. They certainly had very little leisure time because before the invention of electricity and for some gas lighting they went to sleep and rose largely with the sun because they could not afford good lighting. Then it was off to work for another easy day at the bench or whatever they did. I suppose in some ways the leisure pursuits did not exist so work filled in the time.
Chris
Everything I like is either illegal, immoral or fattening
Member
IMO that's no longer true. It amazes me how many companies are doing well these days by targeting the 0.1%.
When I was growing up that sort of conspicuous wealth was viewed as unseemly.
Contributor
Amen to that.
Member
I mean no disrespect to teachers, I almost became one, but education is a limiting factor these days. Kids go to school to prepare for college ONLY. They are not taught shop class, home skills, money management, or any useful life skills. Once they go to college they have 4 years to try and "figure everything out" while learning to adjust socially and trying to mature. Socioeconomic differences aside, kids 100 years ago were getting married at 18 or earlier and had families to support. If they didn't have a college degree they went to company to develop a skill. They started doing something almost menial and moved up learning every job along the way.
School no longer teaches life skills and companies in the US don't want to put money into employee development, as they would rather hire a labor force that already has skills to function immediately at their job. Oddly enough, immigrants often come into our country with a higher level of competency for trade jobs because they didn't go to college and had to work and develop skills to survive. As a bonus to the hiring company, they have no education so companies use that to justify paying immigrants them less. Please be advises, I have no problem with immigrants. Everyone in this country was an immigrant at some period in history.
So by my estimation, our education system is keeping people in school longer, giving them less life skills, driving up personal debt, and is actually depriving the job market by churning out 23 - 25 year old "kids" with nothing but entry level skills. Meanwhile, college tuition is going up and higher education is making more money that ever.
I guess want I am implying is that we have created our own problems and the kids really have nothing to do with it. If we want to fix it, we need to look at the end products of our education system and ask if removing things like shop class, music, and art (all things which require to use our heads and hands in a skilled fashion) were warranted. Having higher math scores didn't get us to the moon. It was abstract thinking and application of science to solve a problem.
Last edited by Robby Tacheny; 05-15-2016 at 5:55 PM.
Contributor
I do not know of many companies doing well serving the top 0.1%. I certainly do not see that as a sure fire business plan.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Contributor
If you're located in the right part of the world (NYC/N. Jersey, LA, Bay area etc.) you might do alright targeting the 1%ers because there's quite a few wealthy people in a relatively small area. For most of the country good luck.
Last edited by Curt Harms; 05-17-2016 at 7:38 AM.
Contributor
I do not know Curt. My home and occupation used to be in the San Francisco Bay Area. Besides, Patrick mentioned the top 0.1% a category even smaller than the top 1%. This is not a percentage of the population, it is a percentage based on earning levels.
I knew a guy who worked for a Rolls Royce repair and restoration service. I could almost always find him at home.
Discussions like this always make me think about the guy selling apples on a street corner during the Great Depression. His sign said, "Apples $1,000,000 each." Someone suggested his apples were a bit high priced. His reply was, "I only need to sell one."
It would be nice to have a wealthy patron supporting your endeavors. It could be a disaster if they decide to spend their money elsewhere. It is better to have many people wanting your services. If one leaves it won't be a reason to panic.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Contributor
If his skill level and demand were such that he didn't need to work much to make the $$$ he needed more power to him.I knew a guy who worked for a Rolls Royce repair and restoration service. I could almost always find him at home.
Very true but certain areas have enough high income individuals ($500,000+/yr.) that one needn't be reliant on one or two people. You just need to be spoken highly of in the right quarters.It would be nice to have a wealthy patron supporting your endeavors. It could be a disaster if they decide to spend their money elsewhere.
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