Revealing. I'll bet plenty still can't tell the difference (or don't care). I'm one. I've always used low-end laptops, mobiles, clothes, vehicles, anything else you can think of. I care that it functions (so I buy good brands and new) but everything else except price is a very secondary. When I read things like "rich, vivid colors" in a description of a screen, for example, or "clear, deep bass" for some earbuds, my eyes glaze over. Whatever. Does it work and will it last?, is what I want to know. I also don't care about (or even really notice) the taste of tap water. Water is water. All this must be related and I can't be the only one.

They're very base people who go through life seeing only price tags, and tallying worth only in dollar figures. They act like life is a video game and money is the score.

It's a shallow life, devoid of the appreciation of all the wonderful things available, and in my estimation, barely living. It's just existing as a robot does.

Why spend vacation in Fiji when there are sunsets in Fresno, too?

I think it cuts both ways though — there are those who will exaggerate or outright fabricate subtle differences in order to justify their expensive purchases, and also those that will deny real differences because they think everyone is just doing the first thing.

You are right about it cutting both ways though. I remember laptop shopping with a colleague in the past. They were trying to replace a barely functional laptop that they purchased because of its "design" with something they could get work done on. Unfortunately, they refused to acknowledge that functionality is an element of design. The whole experience was one of frustration.

This calculator appears to fit into a similar category. I'm sure it is a perfectly fine calculator, functionally speaking, if you are performing basic financial calculations. It isn't going to cut it if your working outside of that domain. When you consider that a calculator that is a tenth (or even a hundredth) of the price is going to offer a similar experience, I'm not even sure I would regard the nuances in its design a good thing. Yes, it says something about it's owner. I'm just not sure it says the right thing.

But I should add (contrary to the rebuttal my provocative take attracted) that I am in fact very finely tuned to esthetics. As a photographer I'm obsessed with getting everything right (composition, light, texture, color, details) and routinely delete everything that doesn't make the cut.

It just seems obvious to me that in consumer products, most of the differences are pretty small in substantive terms. Big economic interests are at stake in amplifying them, and conjuring up demand through marketing, and generally manipulating us.

This is a great example because the ambiguity could go either way (e.g. spotify lossless FLAC vs vinyl will set off picky people on each side).

Sometimes different is just different, and each will be better to some.

I didn't ask for it and I don't want it, hah.

I feel no need to convince others that they should try to find the difference.

I'm happy that, say, cheap wine doesn't give me the same mental-twitch.

I’d be curious how you’d do on a hue test: https://www.xrite.com/hue-test

For me, each colored square is plainly, obviously different, and it is immediately obvious how they need to be sorted. But I also know people I’ve shown the test to who thought it was a trick - “there’s only 3 or 4 distinct colors, so how am I supposed to sort the same-colored squares?”

If one’s perception is particularly lossy, it makes sense that lower fidelity displays and audio will likely be indistinguishable from higher fidelity ones.

But the real issue here is surely simpler. To me, when I buy a screen (or whatever), I know in advance that (A) I will not be comparing it daily with another screen, and (B) it will be - easily - good enough for my purposes.

You might say I'm depending on other, more perfectionist, consumers to do the quality control. Fair enough.

It's not like I can't tell the difference if I see hi- and low-fidelity products next to each other. It's just that I don't care enough to pay the price premium, and I don't mind using low-end equipment. I also feel less apprehension about losing or damaging it.

Me neither until I moved to west Texas.

Some people here will be rushing to buy the latter because the former is no longer available, even though they don't need a very average calculator in a premium case. (And if they did need a useful premium calculator, they'd buy an HP.)

When you spending $75,000 on a new suit, the tailor shouldn't be using a Dollar Store calculator.

Elon Musk could, quite literally, feed the world with his net worth. But he chooses not to. I'm not sure what your point is. I don't what it's like to own a $75,000 suit, but I do know the tailor.

If you want to walk your talk, sell the computer you're using right now and give the money to the poor. Then surf HN from the public library.

"Put up, or shut up" as they say.

CalcGPT?

I have this for wine. I can tell an objectively disgusting wine but other than that I find most wines (I’m in Europe so it’s different) pretty decent. I’m working hard to keep it that way. I have friends who are almost always disappointed in their wine and have to pay a fortune for a bottle they’ll find decent. No thanks.

You may choose to reduce its meaning by not engaging or connecting with its story, but say you actually take the time to read through that page which bothers to talk about the tradition of the craft and even shows a picture of the artist, to still remain in that place is to deny it of any meaning behind all that was involved.

At that point, when you say something like that what others may hear is that you do not value the craftsmanship and artistry that accompany the product.

It’s okay not to like it and say it’s not for you, but to fail to recognize effort and deny craft is a bit rude, you don’t need to like it to be able to recognize it as something that exists in a different level than the status quo.

I’m not that way, but I wouldn’t put someone down who is that way.

I mostly meant to say that sometimes it isn’t just about function (like this case), and then dismissing it by saying you don’t recognize the difference becomes alienation by choice.

I tend to think of myself as a realist, not a Philistine. I have Echizen laquer bowls I picked up in Japan and a headphone with Japanese cherry tree wood + Echizen, and while they're very beautiful to see in actual daylight, your PoV is not wrong either - from a functional PoV, they might as well be a more delicate plastic in terms of function.

Like any art that you might get, or something else you're obsessive about that other people don't give a rats ass about, it's all in the eye of the beholder.