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#plannedobsolescence#phoebuscartel#righttorepair

This is why we can't have nice things

Veritasium

21M subscribers • 25 videos on Hallway

YouTube
  • Recommended by 4 people: 4 on Hacker News.
  • Presented by Derek Muller, creator of Veritasium
  • An opinion. It argues one side of a question engineers disagree on.

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

25M views5 years ago4 recommendations

Tools and practiceCareers and interviewsThe tech industryDeveloper productivity

Derek Muller explores the history and economics of planned obsolescence, explaining how companies deliberately design products to fail prematurely.

This video is about stuff: light bulbs, printers, phones and why they aren't better. Go to NordVPN.com/veritasium and use code VERITASIUM to get a 2-year plan plus 1 additional month with a huge discount. It’s risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee! References: The Man in the White Suit — ve42.co/Suit London, B. (1932). Ending the depression through planned obsolescence. — ve42.co/London32 Slade, G. (2009). Made to break: Technology and obsolescence in America. Harvard University Press — ve42.co/madetobreak Krajewski, M. (2014). The great lightbulb conspiracy. IEEE spectrum, 51(10), 56-61. — ve42.co/Phoebus Planet Money, The Phoebus Cartel - ve42.co/PMobs The Light Bulb Conspiracy - youtu.be/e9xmn228HM0 Special thanks to Patreon supporters: Mac Malkawi, Oleksii Leonov, Michael Schneider, Jim Osmun, Tyson McDowell, Ludovic Robillard, jim buckmaster, fanime96, Juan Benet, Ruslan Khroma, Robert Blum, Richard Sundvall, Lee Redden, Vincent, Lyvann Ferrusca, Alfred Wallace, Arjun Chakroborty, Joar Wandborg, Clayton Greenwell, Pindex, Michael Krugman, Cy 'kkm' K'Nelson, Sam Lutfi, Ron Neal Written by Derek Muller and Petr Lebedev Animation by Ivy Tello Filmed by Derek Muller and Raquel Nuno Edited by Derek Muller Video supplied by Getty Images Music by Jonny Hyman and from epidemicsound.com"Aquatic Planet", "Rhythm of Dreams", "Tread Lightly", "Unexpected Visitors", "Curved Mirrors" "Drunken Lullaby" "Fluorescent Lights" Thumbnail by Raquel Nuno and Karri Denise

Why it's here

4 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as an engaging and clear explanation of planned obsolescence and the economic forces driving product durability down.

somenameformeon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Engineers investigating NASA’s Voyager 1 telemetry data”

Veritasium has an awesome video on planned obsolescence here. 1 The problem in many cases isn't that it costs so much more to make products that last, but rather that making products that break is just way more profitable when you can effectively control the market to such a degree that you don't need to worry about some party pooper (1) coming in and making stuff that does genuinely last and (2) gaining significant marketshare. The example of the light bulb cartel that had unquality assurance, spot testing, and a formal structure of fines and penalties for any members who made too long of lasting lightbulbs is just hilariously dystopic. 1 - link to this video
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infogulchon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Phoebus Cartel”

Veritasium made a video that reviews the history and presents the topic in an engaging way. "This is why we can't have nice things" - link to this video
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ComradePhilon Hacker News • Recommends

On “EU to make it mandatory to use customer-replaceable batteries in household items”

This is a very good start. If they did the same for screens, I wouldn't be surprised if the phone sales dropped to half or even less. There is no way companies like Apple and Samsung will be OK with this. I expect big pushback from them. If these steps go through, it will be interesting to see what other planned obsolescence 1 methods will these companies go for. The one big tool Apple has is the full control of the software ecosystem. They can simply make newer apps unavailable for old phones for example. That will need to be tackled at some point. 1 Veritasium video on planned obsolescence which is interesting: link to this video
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somenameformeon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Engineers investigating NASA’s Voyager 1 telemetry data”

In modern times planned obsolescence is a normal part of business. The comments for the linked video 1 are awesome because it has so many people from different areas of industry (and academia) sharing anecdotes. So cartel? Probably not. Built to fail? Almost certainly. If we view things only through the lens of profit, then MTTF (mean time to fail) is just another curve to maximize against profit. If it's too short then your reputation will suffer and you'll lose money. If it's too long, then you're just leaving money on the table. In our society the brilliant engineer is not the one who makes a thing that last for 50 years, but one that lasts for just long enough to avoid damaging your br…
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deltasevennineon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret”

…ulture from one where we kept tools around for years into one where we need to buy new things all the time. It was not like this at least 1 or 2 generations ago. The result of this endless buying behavior is good for business and the economy but it has devastating effects on the environment and our resources. Worth watching if you have 15 minutes: link to this video The actual story of how companies colluded to make lightbulbs not last as long.…
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deltasevennineon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret”

This is called planned obsolescence, and it's not just electronics. Practically every product nowadays are designed with a death date to perpetuate a repeating buying cycle from consumers. It's very real. To learn more here's an interesting short video about it: link to this video
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qarton Hacker News • Mentions

On “A campaign to make environmental destruction an international crime”

The cartels were for incandescent light bulbs 1, rather than other kinds of lighting. It's harder for cartels to exist now, given that we can buy alternatives from other countries on Ebay and AliExpress. 1 link to this video
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kenmacdon Hacker News • Mentions

On “How Government Wrecked the Gas Can”

> Light bulbs don’t illuminate. I find this one especially funny as it's pretty much the lack of regulation that made the 'old' bulbs burn out much too quickly 1. And before someone says "but my LED bulbs keep burning out", also the free-market/lack of regulation. To see how they should be built watch Clive on how bulbs are made for Dubai2. 1. link to this video 2. link
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neonologicalon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Overkill objects for everyday life”

Consumer grade products are deliberately designed to fail. This is why: link to this video If you're older, like really old, you can actually remember a time where products were of a much much higher durability before the industry figured out that low durability products were more profitable. So in actuality some of the suggestions on that site aren't necessarily overkill as industrial products aren't deliberately engineered to fail.
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adhesive_wombaton Hacker News • Mentions

On “Someone should probably start a bright home lighting company (2019)”

There are in fact LED bulbs that aren't overdriven to a deliberate and premature thermal death, but you can only buy them in Dubai: link Lightbulbs have a long and very successful history of artificially driving lightbulb lifetimes down though a cartel system: link to this video If you're building your own LED fixtures, you can probably underdrive the LEDs and run them at a radically cooler and slightly more efficient operating point, at a higher upfront cost: you need more LEDs for the same output.
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anthropodieon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Android 13”

We need to find a way to move on, once something is perfected. Because if we don't we kinda ruin what we have already perfected. It's called planned obsolescence and below are some resources on the same. It is widely used across industries for over a century and kinda plays a huge role in climate change. Veritasium link to this video DW (mostly about phone) link
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lglon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Ask HN: Are iPhones designed to last for a couple of years?”

Most likely yes, as it is also done by many electronics companies. It's called "planned obsolescence" 0. There's a particular video from Veritasium 1 that comes to mind regarding this. 0 link 1 link to this video
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quaintdevon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?”

This exact behavior drives planned obsolescence. This has led to so much waste over past century that it's going to be very hard to go back. I was baffled that we invented a bulb that could last 100 years over a century ago and I still have to change bulbs every year or two. There are nice documentaries about this 0 The end of ownership link 1 This is why we can't have nice things link to this video
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shagieon Hacker News • Mentions

On “There's something off about LED bulbs”

This goes into the "actual conspiracy - not a theory" category. Veritasium - This is why we can't have nice things - link to this video The Great Lightbulb Conspiracy link > On 23 December 1924, a group of leading international businessmen gathered in Geneva for a meeting that would alter the world for decades to come. Present were top representatives from all the major lightbulb manufacturers, including Germany’s Osram, the Netherlands’ Philips, France’s Compagnie des Lampes, and the United States’ General Electric. As revelers hung Christmas lights elsewhere in the city, the group founded the Phoebus cartel, a supervisory body that would carve up the worldwide incandescent lightbulb market, with ea…
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plewdon Hacker News • Mentions

On “East Germany invented 'unbreakable' drinking glasses”

Not exactly the most reliable supporting evidence, but Veritasium has a video which talks about this stuff. link to this video
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