TIL my old hand-cranked blower from a garage sale is way better than the new electric one I bought.

After burning through two $150 electric blowers in a year, I went back to the 50-year-old hand crank and realized the steady, quiet air control is perfect for forge welding, so what's your take on modern tools versus old-school reliability?

3 comments

3 Comments

wendy_carr3mo ago

Modern stuff breaks so fast now.

david_price503mo ago

My 2015 MacBook Pro is still running strong, Wendy Carr. We expect way more from our gadgets now, like 4K video and constant updates, and they still last years. My parents' old TV might have worked for decades, but it only got three channels and weighed a ton. The stuff we have now does a hundred things at once and gets used way harder.

the_emma1mo ago

lol yeah this is such a good point! its like we've traded durability for power and convinience. i notice it everywhere now, not just with tech. like my blender from 2010 finally died last year but that thing was a beast, meanwhile my new one already feels wobbly after a year. same with clothes, i have a hoodie from 8 years ago that still looks fine but the ones i bought last winter are already pilling. we just expect stuff to be disposable now and it sucks because you cant even fix most things yourself anymore. everything's glued together or has proprietary parts so you just toss it. it's like the whole system is designed to make you buy new instead of keeping what works.