Bells and whistles
My parents recently got a new refrigerator, made by Samsung. And while it’s advertised as being smart—with its touchscreen-door and many features—on closer inspection it’s anything but.
It got me thinking about technology and design. Because it’s certainly not cheap for a manufacturer to make a fridge with a touchscreen, and a built-in app, and a dozen features, (when they can just as well make one that sells without). But it is easier.
Easier to add the same tech that powers their Galaxy phones and call it a ‘smart-fridge’ with a $1,000 markup. Easier than sitting in a room full of smart designers and engineers for weeks and months, and brainstorming ways to completely re-design a machine.
Easier because there’s less emotional drama. Easier, because it’s a sinecure. Easier, because it allows you to hide, to play it safe, to avoid the creative risk of doing something new.
A different take on a classic theme is never easy, precisely because it’s never been done. It’s risky, it’s expensive, and it might not work.
And so we’re left with bells and whistles. Needless features that don’t solve much and are hardly smart, while upping the ante for those willing to take a chance.
Because for those willing to fail, betting on something better is a risk worth taking.