this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2024
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Once upon a time, stuff was made to last...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Light
That's only because that light has been running non-stop, and at very low power. It's the on/off cycles that kills the filament.
Plus, the whole "they used to make stuff to last" thing is just survivorship bias. They absolutely made garbage products in the past, but those didn't survive.
Plus, most things like appliances were major purchases. People today don't want to/can't drop the equivalent of $400 on a toaster or $3k on a washing machine.
Ah, but that's just it, lightbulbs were the beginning of enshittification. Once lightbulb manufacturers realized people weren't coming back to buy more bulbs very often, they started deliberately making them to burn out a bit faster, to make them more of a consumable product.
Do note, there's a difference between a conspiracy theory and an actual conspiracy. This actually happened yo, and we're still suffering with this sort of deliberately short lived shit today..
https://youtu.be/ulUI7JsFjZU
With light bulbs, there is a trade off between longevity and efficiency.
Efficient shorter lasting bulbs are the superior product, they save the consumer money (at the expense of the inconvenience of having to replace them a little more often)
Meanwhile, after they mastered the process of making LEDs, they were quoted to have a half life of around 400 years, meaning that after 400 years continuous use, they'd be expected to emit about half as much light as they did new.
Now what did they go and do? They ramped up the power and made them blindingly bright, yet only last like 5 years or so, if you're lucky.
And the cycle of enshittification continues...
Producing quality LEDs is a hella process. Producing shit LEDs is cheap.
There are several layers (7?) and a crack of a micron or three will suck the life out of it. Add to that shitty controllers and we get shitty LEDs. But they're cheap!
I've got a couple of red LEDs that were made for the original IBM PC. They still work flawlessly.
It's usually not the LED that fails, but the driver
I agree that there is survivorship bias, but I disagree that its "just" that.
Things are made cheaper today, regardless. There are $400 toasters, but I guarantee that one wouldn't last as long as a 1950s toaster.
Plumbing fixtures are a better example, as essentially you can't find one that is equivalent of a 50 year old faucet, no matter the price. They just don't make them like that.
Electronic components are another factor. First off, we stopped using lead in solder which results in weaker, more brittle connections. They just don't last as long. True, we have advancements that make components run hotter in certain scenarios (so those connections get more stress) but even disregarding that the fact still stands it's not as good.
Then we added those electronics into everything to make them "better". Old washing machines were essentially all mechanical so they would run forever, and be easy to maintain or fix. Now they have computers running them that are designed to not be fixed.
Its hard to find a company today that wants to make a good product. They just want to make one that is good enough. Our culture has shifted to that mindset. Things don't last as long, so we switched to a disposable mindset.