Subject: Re: [baidarka] unencumbered by the thought process
From: William Nettles (netttles@adelphia.net)
Date: Sun Mar 27 2005 - 18:40:24 EST
(I've been out of town so I'm a little behind)
I think Peter and Wolfgang make excellent points.
All the fine sounding BS from Adam Smith about the power of the
marketplace has its limitations. After all it has led us to McDonalds,
Walmart, Enron and SUVs.
I recently read The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, (the part that
applies here is) in a marketplace totally saturated by advertising and
marketing, people ignore it as static. Instead look to knowledgeable
people they can trust to advise them on which products are the best.
Hence this and similar discussion groups.
I used to say, its better to use my brain than my credit card.
I add a corollary, "It's better to use your brains than my credit card."
Will
On Mar 25, 2005, at 7:48 PM, Peter Chopelas wrote:
> wolfgang brinck wrote:
>
>> ....., natural selection
>> does not work in the case of kayak paddles. Kayakers that go to the
>> kayak store and buy inappropriate paddles are not automatically
>> eliminated from the gene pool, nor are retailers who sell them or
>> manufacturers that make them.
>>
>>
>>
>
> Natural selection does work with commercial paddles, the problem is
> that it does not optimize the paddle design, but rather the survival
> of the retailer and manufacturer. I.e. the purpose of manufactured
> and re-sold paddles is not to optimize paddle performance but to
> maximize profit for the manufacturer and the retailer, or else neither
> will survive (there has to be some synergy here between the
> manufacturer and the retailer since they depend on each other). And
> if the typical buyer of paddles is ignorant of what is the best
> design, then the manufacturer and the retailer would be fools trying
> to sell advanced design paddles. They must sell to the typically
> ignorant buyer to stay alive, therefor they make designs that will get
> the product sold and off the showroom floor, rather than the best
> design. That means that commercial paddles are designed to separate
> the buyer from his money, and the one that does that the best is the
> manufacturer that survives.
>
> If the survival of the paddler depends on the best design, then very
> different equipment would be sold. Survival was critical for native
> kayakers, hence they used very different equipment. This is not the
> primary motivation of modern kayakers, who are simply out doing a
> recreational activity. "modern" commercial kayaks are big, heavy,
> wide, stable, slow and comfortable with padded adjustable seats.
> Almost the same thing with paddles, both are designed to look good on
> the show room, and get a buyer to buy them. If the performance of the
> paddle and kayak were important for the survival of the kayaker today,
> then all of the buyers of bad equipment would get removed from the
> "buyers" pool, and so would the manufacturers of bad designs.
>
> I had a company once that made outdoor equipment and take my word for
> it, getting the product off the shelf is a VERY real consideration if
> you want to stay in business. You will go broke trying to convince
> customers they do not want all that useless garbage on their equipment
> (like rudders, etc.). Typical buyers will spend twice as much buying
> a flashy piece of equipment with all the useless bells and whistles
> than buy a "boring" simple design that performs twice as good for far
> less money!!! So the manufacturer that survives is the one that can
> get the most money out of the most ignorant buyers, that is what is
> optimized in the modern market.
>
>
> Peter
> reproduced outside Baidarka or Baidarka archives without author's
> permission
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