Re:British Museum realises 'vase' is in fact an ancient mace...
by TeMPOraL on Thursday January 10, 2019 @07:24AM
(#18873342)
It's not just specialization, often it's overspecialization, driven by commercial interests. Even though a generic tool G can do tasks A, B and C well, people are told to buy specialized tools for each of those tasks that are only marginally better at their specific tasks (sometimes, not even that) at the expense of being worse for the other tasks. Hell, sometimes it's the same tool, but with a specialized label and extra markup (e.g. disposable shaving razors for men and women which differ only by a) color, and b) price). But people fall for that.
Re:British Museum realises 'vase' is in fact an ancient mace...
by Qwertystop on Thursday January 10, 2019 @04:08PM
(#18878185)
Shaving razors aren't just different in that - the angle of the blade relative to the handle is different, because it's more comfortable/easier to control for different regions of the body.
The price difference isn't particularly justified, but presumably "face razor" and "leg razor" doesn't sell as well.
Re:British Museum realises 'vase' is in fact an ancient mace...
by SmellyGeekBoy on Thursday January 10, 2019 @05:16AM
(#18872779)
Strange that tech seems to be moving in the opposite direction, with single-purpose devices like MP3 players, GPS devices and cameras being consolidated into phones.
Re:British Museum realises 'vase' is in fact an ancient mace...
by masklinn on Thursday January 10, 2019 @05:26AM
(#18872819)
I'm not sure it's strange: these are "nomadic" not sedentary devices, you don't keep your MP3 player and GPS device and camera in your shed, you have them on you at all times, so combining them makes for a much simpler nomadic experience.
Not to mention phones are really quite good at being mp3 players and GPS devices and cameras at least for the average person, so the tradeoff is not big.
Re:British Museum realises 'vase' is in fact an ancient mace...
by Nasrudith on Thursday January 10, 2019 @08:35AM
(#18873680)
Also the fact is that the user interfaces are the "huge" part for devices compared to the processing. It brings to mind the cyberpunk trope of full keyboard sized "decks" with a tiny screen if that as opposed to modern laptops which have long used squarer and abbreviated keyboard layouts.
Re:British Museum realises 'vase' is in fact an ancient mace...
by ryanmercer on Thursday January 10, 2019 @03:39PM
(#18877871)
Personal electronics perhaps. I'd argue there are more specialty hand and power tools than ever before though.
Re:British Museum realises 'vase' is in fact an ancient mace...
by masklinn on Friday January 11, 2019 @05:55AM
(#18882513)
That's probable, but at the same time e.g. woodworkers would tend to build their own tools on the fly to fit their specific or personal needs, these tools were not standardised or widely available but I'm guessing the average wood carver in the 15th or 16th century had dozens of very specialised tools, it would just be tools they made themselves or asked a friend to make for them rather than tools they bought from a big box store.
It's not consumerism it's specialisation: with the advance of sedentarisation and techno-industrial might, we can afford to go beyond one tool doing a bit of everything not very well (e.g. shave and punch holes and cut food and …) and instead use plenty of tools which do one job very efficiently or conveniently.