
The Best - jordanbrown
http://dcurt.is/the-best
======
mapgrep
This is empty madness. It is, very literally, a celebration of total
materialism.

What is ultimately important in life are people -- messy, filthy, bacteria-
and-disease-laden, imperfect, emotional, sweating shitting cursing crying
screaming laughing farting people and the connections we build to them.

This celebration of spending insane amounts of time choosing the perfect
flatware or the perfect wallet is sick. Steve Jobs spent _eight years_
discussing furniture with his family before buying a sofa etc
([http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/11/14/111114fa_fact_...](http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/11/14/111114fa_fact_gladwell)).
I will never do that, and I will never have flatware as nice as Dustin
Curtis', and I will never have sound as good as an obsessive audiophile, or
the perfect car.

I won't even write a particularly convincing Hacker News comment on this very
topic. I've got to go. Life is too short for this shit.

~~~
pg
No, it's a designer with an interest in all design.

I know Dustin sometimes alienates people, but it makes me sad to see such a
mean comment in reply to a thoughtful essay. In fact I'll coin a term for it:
strawmean (strawman + mean) because you've had to invent a position he didn't
take in order to attack it.

What makes me even sadder is the huge mob who upvoted this comment. Because
that is the decline of HN embodied right there.

Illegitimi non carborundum, Dustin.

~~~
Raphael_Amiard
> I know Dustin sometimes alienates people, but it makes me sad to see such a
> mean comment in reply to a thoughtful essay

I agree that the comment has a mean tone, but i think the gist of it is quite
thoughtful.

> In fact I'll coin a term for it: strawmean (strawman + mean) because you've
> had to invent a position he didn't take in order to attack it.

Maybe i'm missing something, but it seems to me that he didn't invent any
position. Dustin Curtis is quite literally advocating that you use a lot of
your time to choose the best possible objects to use in your daily life.

OP is reacting to that, and the philosophical posture underneath (spend more
time on people than you spend on objects) is quite an interesting one in my
opinion, even if it probably didn't need to be phrased that way.

Ideally, both postures would go hand in hand, and balance each other.

> What makes me even sadder is the huge mob who upvoted this comment. Because
> that is the decline of HN embodied right there.

I think you are reacting to the tone of the comment more than to it's content.
But i also think you are being overdramatic here. OP is not attacking Dustin
directly. He is attacking the idea developed in his post. At least that's how
i understood it.

~~~
davej
I am utterly dumbfounded by some of the comments here. I feel like people have
completely misunderstood his philosophy.

To me, Dustin is advocating a very practical position of minimalism. It's
about starting from scratch and thinking carefully about everything you own.
There is a huge upfront investment involved but you will get that time back
(and much more) because you trust your tools. They won't let you down, They
won't break, They will work exactly as intended and you will understand _why_
they work in that way. This frees you up to spend more time on the things that
are important to you.

I spent a few months travelling this year and I spent an awful lot of time
thinking about what I wanted to bring with me. I bought almost everything from
scratch and each item that went into the backpack was meticulously researched.
I ended up with only 7.5kg (including backpack) of stuff but I had everything
I needed and everything I needed was important. I was suddenly less anxious
about setting off on my adventure. When others found that their backpacks were
coming apart at the seams, mine was as strong as the day I bought it. When
spending a month motorbiking through Vietnam, it took my friends 15 minutes to
strap their 20KG+ of luggage to the bike every morning, it took me one minute.
I always had the perfect clothing for whatever activity in whatever weather
(despite the fact that I had about a third as much clothes as everybody else).
While others were wondering around rural areas looking for a launderette, I
had everything I needed to wash my own clothes (The liquid I used for washing
clothes could also be used to wash my hair and shave, and I only needed a few
ml of it). I got better sleep in dodgy areas because my fellow travellers were
sleeping with one eye open while my bag was securely locked and tethered to
something grounded. I could go on.

The bottom line is that I spent less time worrying and more time enjoying the
moments and being with the people I was lucky enough to spent those moments
with.

~~~
swah
Having good tools is great but throwing away 20 sets of flatware until you
stay on with the 21th is a form of minimalism only for the rich, and
absolutely not practical.

~~~
loumf
He didn't say he threw them away -- I assumed he returned them

~~~
jdgiese
I would argue that shipping around 20 sets of flatware is excessive in and of
itself.

------
onan_barbarian
It's almost beyond parody: "when you have trust in everything you own, you
don’t have to worry about anything. It’s liberating and an amazing feeling. My
life was markedly better because of it."

Right, because sane people would otherwise spend a lot of time sitting around
worrying about their _stuff_.

It reminds me of a Louie CK routine:

"I need the best Blu-Ray! What are you, the King of Siam? You deserve the
absolute best everything? These machines are all the same, made by the same
Asian suffering."

~~~
andylei
I think this line did it for me:

> I trusted my wallet to hold cash, boarding passes, and IDs without deforming
> or falling apart, and it did.

Imagine the chaos if my wallet started deforming!

My wallet was some random wallet I bought at WalMart for $10, and I'm always
worrying, "is the cash I put in my wallet going to stay there?" Sometimes, it
just quantum tunnels right through the wallet into my pocket! It's anarchy!

~~~
frossie
_Imagine the chaos if my wallet started deforming!_

I realise you are being funny, but your comment is analogous to an extrovert
going "sheesh, imagine the chaos if you actually came out with your coworkers
for one beer!" to an introvert who really _really_ wants to go home. _You_ are
trying to assign a seriousness to somebody _else's_ reaction to something. If
you are happy with the first wallet you picked up (be it for $10 at Wal-Mart
or a more expensive one from a leather goods store) that is great. Some people
are just incredibly bothered by things that other people don't notice. For
those people, the perfect spoon really does improve their life, the way a neat
desk with carefully stacked papers improves the life of a person with OCD, and
is totally irrelevant to somebody else.

It is entirely possible that the dude is happier purely because he feels he
has the best fork he could have and that makes the fork "disappear". I feel
happy because I have a keyboard that "disappears" when I use it (I never think
about my keyboard). I am under no delusion that it makes me a discerning
hacker while he is a shallow materialist. Everybody tries to maximise their
happiness by smoothing out the bumps of life. If you have a psychology with
better suspension, just be grateful and carry on.

~~~
ditonal
You are missing the point. The author claims to focus on the best product from
a functionality standpoint, but he fails to convince us that the "best" wallet
is actually any functionally better. His arguments for why it's better are
based on imagined problems with cheaper products that don't actually exist.

~~~
lazugod
What Dustin wrote was a succinct way to say that crappy wallets _do_ exist,
that he _did_ research the problems. It's a blog about his own satisfaction,
not a product review.

~~~
officemonkey
But his key example, cutlery, is fairly preposterous. He claimes a dead
Japanese designer made the finest siverware ever.

I'll agrue that the photo of "the best" cutlery is, in my opinion,
"perfect"-ly hideous. Therefore it's not "the best," it's merely his favorite.

So he has made the stunning conclusion that "people are happier when they own
things they like."

 _sigh_

~~~
ssmoot
The wide tines of the salad fork are going to ruin your tomatoes, not to
mention pulverize the walnuts or pecans in your Bib salad.

The soup spoons are too wide.

The knife if ridiculously non-functional to anyone who's ever made a PB&J for
their kid.

It's pure aesthetics. Pure pretension.

And to think reading a book or two would give you such an in-depth
understanding of "The Best" for anything! Imagine someone saying the same
about Software Development. Or Plumbing. Engineering. etc.

I have a family member that has to have "The Best" of everything too... he has
a $700 blender he rarely uses and spent weeks agonizing over. The Best vacuum,
that mostly just picks up packing peanuts from the rest of his Superior
acquisitions. The Best corkscrew. The Best wine aerator. The Best camera. The
Best mattress.

No one would claim he has The Best life because he's ruled by his compulsion
to have The Best things. Having a family member like this, it's almost
offensive to see such triviality glorified.

------
Swizec
Dustin thinks he's discovered something new, instead he's just a product of
this generation. The generation new york times once characterised as "Would
rather own one pair of $100 jeans than ten pairs of $10 jeans".

Our parents are mystified. Their parents much less so.

~~~
rokhayakebe
_Would rather own one pair of $100 jeans than ten pairs of $10 jeans_

I bought jeans that cost way north of $100 and I also grab jeans on the Gap's
clearance rack that cost me around $13 after tax. There is a definitely a huge
difference. When I bought my first pair of Rock Republic, I told myself I
could wear these for the next 10 years.$100 jeans are worth the money in the
way they feel, and fit; $50 t shirts and $100 shirts, not so much.

~~~
qq66
I own an expensive pair of jeans and although their materials and construction
quality is far superior than any other pair of jeans I own, they are far less
comfortable. The expensive pair sits on the shelf (trotted out for special
occasions, the San Francisco equivalent of a suit) and the pairs I wear are
all from Target.

~~~
fudged71
The expensive ones tend to be the ones that get better with wear (the raw
denim that shows wear lines after months) :)

------
oz
This is the age-old debate of maximizers vs satisficers:

[http://happiness-
project.com/happiness_project/2006/06/are_y...](http://happiness-
project.com/happiness_project/2006/06/are_you_a_satis/)

In a nutshell, Dustin is a maximizer.

Regarding flatware, my views have changed as I've grown older (I'm 26). A few
years ago, I didn't care. Now, for some reason, I always reach for a specific
knife/fork combo: I like the weight (most are too light for me), the balance
between the handle and the blade/tines and the industrial design. Eating with
them _just feels better._

~~~
gammarator
The linked blog post discusses it, but I want to highly recommend "The Paradox
of Choice" by Barry Schwartz [1]. He discusses psychological research showing
why maximizing--attempting to have the best of everything--actually leads us
to be _less_ happy with our choices, not more.

Seek quality, sure--but decide what's "good enough," and stop looking when you
find it.

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Paradox-Choice-Why-More-
Less/dp/006000...](http://www.amazon.com/Paradox-Choice-Why-More-
Less/dp/0060005696/)

~~~
ctdonath
That's why I follow sites like uncrate.com & Minimalissimo.com and buy my
furniture from Stickley, etc. - find a few sources recommending high quality
stuff and choose from there; I know it may not be "perfect" and know it will
be expensive, but it will be good and I'll be happy with it.

------
atourgates
Finding "the best" of a product is an obscure hobby. And I'm all for finding
joy in an obscure hobby. But I have a hard time believing that Mr. Curtis is
any more liberated by the flatware that he spent 6-months researching than I
am by the set I happened upon at Crate and Barrel.

I wholeheartedly admire people like Sori Yanagi who work hard to create "the
best" of anything. I also wholeheartedly believe that trying to pin virtue on
the process of being a consumer of "the best" of anything is little more than
pretense

~~~
9999
It's kind of bizarre for me to stumble across this reference to Yanagi
flatware on an HN post, because I just recently threw out my mismatched
collection of flatware that had accumulated over the course of many
roommates/years and bought Sori Yanagi flatware (although not the MoMa pieces
there). I went from owning a dozen or so crappy forks to owning just four
perfect forks. It enforces a certain rigor about washing dishes. I would not
describe them as "the best" flatware and I agree that is a somewhat absurd
designation and pursuit.

That being said, they are extraordinarily beautiful and functional. Their
light weight, finish, and balance all combine to make pieces that beg to be
held, meanwhile, the shape and understated aesthetic mean they do not dominate
the table--they disappear. Although they weren't included in the collection, I
can imagine them fitting into the Supernormal group
(<http://www.supernormal.co.uk/>). Something as mundane as flatware can easily
be dismissed by people that do not care about design, but I have found that on
my path to owning fewer things it is much easier to justify owning exactly the
right thing for me.

------
collypops
In the past week, Dustin has posted a few articles [1,2,3] that have gained a
massive amount of attention here, which all try to drill home the point that
we should be out there living our lives as if they're going to end tomorrow.
We shouldn't put off decisions, we should act on impulses that will make our
lives better in ways we won't even realise. In summary: Life's too short, so
get on with living it.

Now he gives us this. Cutlery.

He should take his own advice and get out of The Waiting Place, get back in
The Fight and Do more than obsess over subjective things that even his own
opinion will change about in time.

[1] <http://dcurt.is/the-fight>

[2] <http://dcurt.is/the-waiting-place>

[3] <http://dcurt.is/do>

------
scarmig
Perfection is meaningless when it comes to material goods. They're always a
means to an end.

Dustin would probably argue that finding a well-designed product is a better
means to the end (of forming relationships, living, loving, friends,
experiences, adventures). It's a plausible point, but it's empirically wrong.

No one in the history of the world has ever gone, "the one thing I regret most
is not spending 40 hours researching to find the perfect set of flatware."

Following this advice is difficult for me. I usually find it very difficult to
not do the same: obsessing over the best bed sheets, the best cutting boards,
the best computer, the best Linux distribution, the best jeans, the best bike,
the best books, the best newspaper, the best way to cut onions, the best suit,
the best $MATERIALGOOD.

Because of a recent housing disaster, I lost virtually everything. It has been
very liberating. All those hours spent obsessing over stupid shit? Worthless.
The friends, family, and relationship that helped me get through it? Worth
everything.

A shopping list, Target, Ikea, and Amazon can get you everything you need to
live a materially comfortable life in 10 minutes. Everything else is just a
means to playing an unwinnable status game.

~~~
Firehed
> Perfection is meaningless when it comes to material goods. They're always a
> means to an end.

I think he's well aware of that. While some of the examples were kind of
strange and materialistic, there's a lot of truth in the concept that some
goods are made better than others. When I use cheap goods, I tend to have a
poor experience with it and uncertainty about its ability to do its job[1].
Higher-quality stuff ("the best"), for the most part, doesn't have this
problem. I can trust that the stuff I'm using will let me get on with my life
without getting in my way. It's like reaching into the toolbox and finding the
exact tool you need for the job at hand - rather than fighting with something
that's kinda-sorta what you need, you can just do what needs to get done. That
time I was fixing the shower head and had the pipe tape I needed on-hand and
where I expected it to be: it prevented a five-minute job from turning into a
two-hour ordeal. I like that.

You raise a great point though - a lot of this stuff is not necessary at all.
But various situations often beyond our control will always be changing our
standards of living. I think the real take-away is that if you're going to
have stuff to improve your life, make sure you're getting stuff good enough
that it's actually an improvement.

[1] All the electronic crap in bathrooms, like paper towel dispensers and
automatic flush toilets. When it works, great - but when it doesn't, you're
fighting with inanimate objects that try to re-solve problems we solved
centuries ago. #firstworldproblem I know, but I could do without the "am I
going to have to wave my hand in front of the paper towel dispenser for thirty
seconds again?" every time I wash my hands.

~~~
fudged71
I think we have seen more and more companies marketing the 'idea' of
perfection and effortlessness rather than measurable improvements, because
we're so tied to the emotion of being stress-free.

And what could be easier to market as this than the "magic" of modern
technology? I helped a friend out with setting up a Mac, and to describe how
time machine worked I found myself speaking about it in anthropomorphic terms
"It knows. It works. It will do that for you." And the same thing is coming
with so much machine learning coming into our lives "It learns. Don't give up,
it will get better if you train it." And then there are the personal
assistants "It hears you. It sees your eyes close. It knows when you've fallen
into deep sleep."

------
wamatt
Mr Curtis could do worse than watching Gladwell's Ted Talk from a few years
back:

[http://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauce...](http://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauce.html)

tl;dr when one asks a question involving people, and you want the most fitted
data, then you need to consider grouping/segmentation of the population into
clusters of preference.

 _What is the best spaghetti sauce?_

It's a flawed question, as it contains an invalid assumption.

Thus what Curtis seems to be describing is a (great/awesome/very good) etc set
of knives, but not 'the best'.

 _Very good_ = a maximization of universal requirements

 _Best_ = maximization of universal && local requirements (population
segmentation preferences, spacial and temporal context etc)

Example: Those forks may be best for _Curtis_ at his dinner. They are
certainly not best for me, on my camping trip. Or best for a tribe in Africa
with different shaped mouths and habits etc. Or best for someone eating
Chinese takeout. etc

~~~
jfb
"Different shaped _mouths_ "?

~~~
wamatt
Haha now that you mention it, that does _sound_ a bit odd! :)

While it was just an example.. perhaps though, it's possible for there to be
morphological oral differences.

Similar to that which exists in other parts of the body, such as facial
structure, eyes, noses etc

~~~
plaguuuuuu
Singer from Aerosmith. He has a HUGE mouth.

------
waxjar
This does not belong in the top spot on Hacker News. Quality stuff is nice to
own, woop-dee-fucking-doo.

Just because Dustin Curtis wrote it, doesn't mean you instantly gotta hit that
tiny little triangle. I very much doubt this little article would have
collected more than 10 upvotes if it were written by some 20-year old that
happened to stumble upon r/minimalism.

I've seen a few of his articles now that are upvoted mindlessly and don't have
the slightest relation to technology or startups. It makes me a little bit
mad.

~~~
georgeorwell
People congregate around narcissists. The more epic the narcissism, the more
epic the congregation. And it goes in the other direction too: epic
congregation implies epic narcissism. It pisses me off too, but I guess this
is just life.

------
amix
I think this kind of obsession (about things that don't matter) was best
portrayed in American Psycho's business card scene:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoIvd3zzu4Y>

------
1as
I like Dustin, and I _love_ what he's doing with Svbtle, but he has this – as
I see it – irrational need to own and experience "the best". Maybe there is
such a thing as the best cutlery, and maybe the cutlery he bought is it...but
it seems like such an empty, odd, materialistic goal. 'First world problems'
writ large.

I first noticed it from this tweet
(<http://twitter.com/dcurtis/statuses/246843440179056640>) where he asks about
"the best ramen in Tokyo". Anybody with any cultural, historical, or indeed
culinary understanding of ramen can see that this is totally missing the
point.

My question is, why continuously talk about and seek "the best" as opposed to,
say, "really good"? There's a kind of arrogance entrained in such a mode of
thought.

~~~
spartango
While I can see your point, you might consider that by asking many people for
their respective favorites, he seeks to get a list of a many options. This is
simply driven by the assumption that if there are many nearly equal "really
good" spots, then people will provide a nice distribution of them as personal
favorites.

~~~
fudged71
The thesis of this blog post, by the same author, is clearly about the literal
best. He could easily have asked "What is a good place for ramen?" or "What
should I look for to find a good ramen place?" or even "What is your favorite
place for ramen?"

And note that he's not asking for the restaurants, he's specifically asking
about the product: the best ramen in tokyo. I think it fits this blog post
very well.

If I go to Italy for the first time, I won't go for "the best pasta in Italy",
I'd go and try authentic italian pasta. There is a huge difference.

------
marknutter
I wonder how Dustin would react if he discovered that the company he bought
the cutlery from was actually mass producing them and floating the whole
"Japanese product designer from a family that made Samurai swords" story to
help sell their product. Would it matter to him? Is he buying great silverware
or a great story?

------
esolyt
Impressive. Dustin Curtis has now developed the ability to praise Apple
without mentioning Apple.

------
gfunk911
“Who are you the King of Siam, you got to get the best one? Who cares? They’re
all the same these machines. They’re all made from the same asian suffering.”
- Louis CK

------
marknutter
When I was in fourth grade I bought a tri-fold leather wallet from target. My
older brother wanted me to give it to him because he would need one for his
permit some day but I refused. I've went on to use the wallet for 20 years
before I finally retired it. It held my money and cards perfectly every day of
those twenty years and I spent maybe 2 minutes picking it out. I paid around
$20 for it.

The point is, almost everything we buy these days is of pretty high quality -
even the cheap stuff. Far more often do we throw away of give away perfectly
good objects because we want to upgrade or because we no longer have a use for
them than we do because they have stopped working.

I can see the appeal of owning what you perceive to be "the best" of a
particular item, but you're kidding yourself if you think it's somehow
fulfilling. It's just stuff.

------
kiskis
Some guys just don't realize how artifical the problem is they pursue.

I'm wondering how much time will they devote to try to find the perfect
coffin.

I mean, "some of the things that matter in coffin design are obvious, like the
material and weight. Other things, which are arguably more important, are
seemingly never even considered, like how the wood feels against your bones
and skin, for example, or how the weight balances under the tombstone. The
long term durability of each plywood is also important."

------
pulplobster
I have never even given flatware or towels any thought. They both have minimal
impact on my life and thus don't need optimization. My laptop has a great
impact on my life, so I think it's reasonable to spend time researching what
you need and paying for the best if that makes sense. My wife is a terrible
premature optimizer. She pinches pennies on the most obscure things like
toilet paper, just to turn around and spend hundreds on a bag. My view is that
I would cut that bag out of my purchases, and then it doesn't matter if I
optimize my toilet paper or not.

Oh well, people are different.

~~~
anigbrowl
Consider, if you will, that your wife's purchase of an expensive handbag is
more purposeful than you imagine. First, women's clothes tend not to have
pockets, so a reliable and comfortable bag is rather more important for ladies
than gentlemen. Second, your wife understands that her handbag is also a
social signaling device, and understands how to communicate in a completely
non-verbal medium.

~~~
pulplobster
Oh yes, I've come to understand that these things are very valuable to her,
but it's difficult for me to imagine. She's very cheap, unless it's something
she cares very much about. When she's researching those things she's a huge
optimizer, and I'm the biggest satisficer you can find. I think optimizers
tend to be less happy though. For her engagement ring she spent months
researching (wouldn't let me do it) and finally we bought a $7k ring. When she
got it she was devastated that the ring didn't make her happier than it did.
The good thing is, she's learning; I think she's realizing that optimizing
everything doesn't actually lead to happiness.

------
ruswick
This reeks of pretention and arrogance. It's fairly obvious and intuitive that
expensive things are nice and that you should pursue them. However, the
overwhelming majority of people have neither the time nor the means to spend
hours researching silverware or dropping $50 per set.

Finding and paying for the best of anything requires more time, patience and
income than most have. To me, it sounds as though Dustin has way too much time
and way too much money, and hasn't a clue how to productively spend either.

Upsetting.

~~~
fudged71
I'm sure many could afford to reduce the items they have to invest in
proportionally more expensive alternative. My biggest worry is the time and
obsessiveness behind this blog post; that, by the title alone, it's not even
about "better quality", but rather the pinacle of all that is holy.

If you wear the Socks from Gammarelli and drink beer exclusively from the
smallest and oldest abbey you can find, you may feel like you rule the world
with every step and every sip, but you will certainly lose grasp on reality
and find yourself alone.

>Last year, I met a Swiss dude with a taste for luxury. He smoked expensive
European cigarettes. Drank the finest spirits. Attended opera by himself on
evenings when he was enthralled by the program but could find no suitable
companion.

via
[http://www.slate.com/articles/life/shopping/2012/04/like_my_...](http://www.slate.com/articles/life/shopping/2012/04/like_my_socks_they_cost_200_.html)

------
jwb119
Can't help but think of that scene from Fight Club.

"It's just, when you buy furniture, you tell yourself, that's it. That's the
last sofa I'm gonna need. Whatever else happens, I've got that sofa problem
handled."

~~~
rkwz
The book has some really good quotes.

<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fight_Club_(novel)>

------
kiba
There is no best in everything, only tools that meet specifics requirement.

For example, there many kind of hammers for so many different purpose. One
doesn't just use a hammer for everything that a hammer could do. Some hammer
you use for smashing, others for driving a nails in, some to shape objects,
and some to bash the opponents' head in battle.

Likewise, there's no perfect single piece of flatware. The Victorians, for
example, loves to buy tons of silverware just to make eating elegant and
perfect for every single dishes. They could have solved the problem of eating
by merely washing their faces and their hands afterward, but custom dictates.
Instead, they spent thousand of dollars on the many variations of fork, spoon,
knife designed to meet different challenges of each particular dish.

------
grecy
While I try very hard to own a minimum set of possessions, always buying "the
best" rings very true for me. Here in The Yukon we have 20+ hours of daylight
for activities in the summer, and regularly see -40C/F in the winter.

Quite simply, if you don't buy "The Best" of anything, it will break or fall
apart very quickly.

Kia cars last at most 2 winters up here.

Cheap canoes and kayaks won't last one summer.

I bought $200 hiking boots that were destroyed in one month walking to work at
-40C

Gore-tex? freezes solid, cracks and is destroyed after -35C

The motto is very simple. Buy it right the first time.

------
brianwillis
I agree with Dustin's point that life is "markedly better" by having the best
available. In saying that, I'm often happier to outsource some of the
responsibility for deciding what is the best product to someone else than do
the leg work myself. I just can't bring myself to get excited about
televisions, cars, and most household appliances.

Would I find a product that better matched my sensibilities by carefully
researching the market? Sure, but buying a product that's a 97% fit for twenty
minutes of work is better than buying one that's a 99% fit for twenty hours of
work. Or at least in my head that's how the cost-benifit analysis works out
(this sort of thing is deeply personal, and I'm prepared to accept that other
people's values are different).

The Wirecutter is great for this sort of thing
(<http://www.thewirecutter.com>). Need a set of headphones? What's your price
bracket? OK, get this pair.

~~~
bobsil1
Disagree with Curtis, it's actually possible to automate this so it doesn't
take him spending weeks reading up on flatware. Just use the knowledge of
those who already have. My startup's app analyzes user ratings and tells you
immediately which one's good for your purposes. Give it a shot:
<http://tryarrow.com>.

~~~
rdl
I would far prefer to use that "app" as a website, not as a phone app. I have
approximately never been walking around with just my iPhone and thought "Oh! I
want to buy a new Point and Shoot Camera! Let me enumerate my preferences..."

As a website, I'd seriously consider using it, particularly for stuff (like
flatware, or shoes, or dish soap, or whatever) that I don't care that much
about.

~~~
bobsil1
Sure, that's the way we research things today, but once it's in your pocket
and it works, it'll happen on-the-fly. Just like how nobody sits at a desktop
and prints out maps today. Also I use my iPhone for everything these days.

We actually threw up a web test and it got way less interest than the mobile
version, probably because it was less novel on the web (other sites existed,
though they didn't work).

------
calinet6
Props for the URL - <http://dcurt.is/the-best>

My bet is he dreamed up the title and then wrote an entire meaningless post
just to sneak it in. Y'all just been trolled good.

~~~
leeoniya
everything he does comes off as elitist and egotistical.

<http://www.dustincurtis.com/> \- Dustin Curtis is a superhero

are you fvckin' kidding me?

~~~
calinet6
Nope, he is not kidding, and it's sick.

------
driverdan
Dustin and I walk similar paths. Last year I got rid of everything I owned,
sans a medium daypack of stuff, and traveled for 6 months. A year later I own
more things than can fit in my backpack but am very much a minimalist.

My philosophy of ownership is simple. If I need something I'll almost always
get the best I can afford. Why not understand what you own? Why not own
quality? I don't mean spend hours researching every small purchase but
certainly spend a little time looking into something you'll use over a period
of time.

I don't need a cabinet full of plates or a closet full of clothes. Why not own
higher quality, fewer items?

~~~
josephagoss
Or why not own fewer items that are of the same quality? I'm not sure what its
like over in the states but here in Australia, more expensive cloths are just
branded, and high enough quality cutlery can be had in cheap stores. I'm not
sure why you have to have higher quality to get less things? Is it the way you
sell it to yourself? So you don't feel cheap? Isn't it a waste of your time
thinking so so much about this worthless rubbish?

~~~
driverdan
Who said anything about the most expensive? Price doesn't always correlate
with quality, especially when talking about brands as you mentioned.

What makes you think I spend lots of time "thinking so much about this
worthless rubbish"? I rarely purchase non-consumables. When I do I spend a
reasonable amount of time based on the use and cost. I spent a lot of time
researching laptops before buying mine since it's such an important item. I
spent about 30 minutes reading about pens before buying some (in case you're
not aware there are many sites dedicated to them). You could probably learn
about flatware in the same amount of time.

~~~
heyitsnick
> Who said anything about the most expensive?

You did when you said "I'll almost always get the best I can afford." You
directly died quality to cost.

------
dnos
I think the author is getting at something, but I don't think he articulated
his thoughts too well -- or at least not well enough to be analyzed by the HN
audience.

To me, it came off as just pure garbage, spewing from a wealthy and/or insane
person who cares more about the things he owns than what he actually does with
those things, with a means of not necessarily communicating with others, but a
way to convince their own self that it's OK to spend many hundreds of dollars
on a flatware set.

The type of thinking the author seems to be making an argument for can consume
you. You will NEVER be happy if you filter the world like this. Sure, there's
a time and place for it, but don't try to convince me that it was "liberating"
when you spent $50 or whatever for a fork.

------
mcantelon
Man, those times my cutlery failed were _rough_. Glad someone's figuring out
the big problems of life.

------
tnuc
Is this an advertisement for cutlery?

Tune in next week when we will be told what the best toilet paper is.

~~~
sopooneo
If it was truly great stuff, I would be okay with that. As many others have
pointed out, spending inordinate amounts of time researching every possession
might not make for a great life. But why not let someone else do it for us?

If one person gets a reputation for integrity and publishes the best of each
category on a website, with links to buy, great. And I wouldn't mind them
taking a cut. Isn't that part of what the web is for?

------
olalonde
I have the completely opposite experience. I find it much more stressful to
own things that are high quality and expensive because I tend to worry more
about such things. In general, I prefer to buy cheaper things knowing that I
can easily afford to lose or break them.

Anecdote: as a kid, I hated going over to some of my relatives' houses - the
ones that owned a lot of expensive stuff. They always seemed so stressed out
about me breaking something and got pretty angry when it happened. I don't
want to become that kind of relative I guess.

~~~
kenneth_reitz
It's not about expense, it's about quality: the items he is surrounding
himself with should ideally be extremely robust.

~~~
v21
You can lose robust things as easily as fragile things. Which is a facile
point, but still, this all just stuff.

------
chewxy
Not sure if this is helpful, but I wrote a long response to The Best:
<http://blog.chewxy.com/2012/11/08/the-best-really/>

In this I raise the point of "the best" being a meaningless measure as we're
actively bombarded by lack of information and other factors that make us
terrible in making calls on whether something is "the best".

I think it's rather hollow to claim that one wants 'the best' and yet doesn't
discount in factors that makes one perceive something as 'the best'

------
tlrobinson
I love the idea of having very few things, but getting rid of the stuff I
already have feels daunting.

I'd be happy to donate most of it, but I'd have to sort through everything,
figuring out if each thing is worth selling, donating, or throwing away, then
figuring out where to sell, donate, or throw it away, then actually doing it.

Anyone who has gone through the process, do you have any suggestions?

~~~
protomyth
Rent a storage garage (climate controlled), then put all your non-vital stuff
into it. If it isn't worth storing you can throw it away - right away.

If its something you think you should have used during the year (not long term
keep sake or legal documents), then figure out what your going to do with it.
Don't do everything at once. Just pick some stuff out of storage and determine
what to do. Slowly.

If you need it, just grab it from storage. If nothing else, a storage garage
makes a fine place to keep your encrypted, backups.

[edit] put Rubbermaid shelves (or equiv) in the storage garage, do not pile
boxes. That will defeat the purpose. The Rubbermaid shelves are easy to put up
and sell / donate later.

~~~
tlrobinson
Actually I already have a storage unit, which I don't think I've been to in
over a year :)

I like the Rubbermaid shelves idea though.

~~~
driverdan
If you haven't been to it in a year then you don't need any of the stuff
that's in it. Get rid of it all.

------
trotsky
i respect a guy who doesn't give a shit what he owns about a million times
more than this example of privilege and loneliness run amuck.

------
pvarangot
I'm sorry for you Mr. Curtis whoever you are... guess you'll never be able to
learn how to play the violin.

------
goblin89
> These might seem like stupid things to worry about, but when you have trust
> in everything you own, you don’t have to worry about anything. It’s
> liberating and an amazing feeling. My life was markedly better because of
> it.

Partly I agree, but I would simplify the statement: “You don't have to worry
about anything. It's liberating and an amazing feeling.”

While _not worrying_ , if you notice your wallet falls apart, you may
momentarily feel uncomfortable and next time buy a better wallet to avoid
losing money.

Should that be a reason to worry that you're using _not the best_ wallet?

That might be true for certain things. Losing money can make you significantly
uncomfortable, depending on various factors. There's probably a _good enough_
wallet, but buying _the best_ might just save some time.

Otherwise, IMO in the end it's up to you whether you worry or not. We can
choose to alter the environment to be happier, or alter our outlook to achieve
the same. I think it's mostly under our control, although may be limited by
environment a person was raised in.

------
jcromartie
I was going to say that not everybody can drop $200 on 4 table settings worth
of flatware...

But yeah, that's pretty much it. People living paycheck-to-paycheck really
just can't afford the best because they have needs that pop up and make it
next to impossible to save a lot of money when you can just as easily buy
flatware that will last for years for $10 from a thrift store.

------
rodolphoarruda
My ex-girlfriend developed this obsession for having "the best" of every
possible thing... I realized it by the time she dumped me...

------
ChristianMarks
He died in 2011 but his flatware lives on. A whole year. OK.

------
rhizome
What is this, dcurt.is week? There were two on the front page yesterday.

~~~
skeletonjelly
It's Svtle season! Subtvle? Subvtl?

Edit: Svbtle.

~~~
lazugod
Please stop.

~~~
skeletonjelly
Because it's my fault I can't spell this non word?

~~~
gyepi
yes

------
rdl
I like to optimize, but also optimize on price. In ~2007, I felt proud to buy
a $21500 new Lincoln LS V8 (loaded) which I bought for $23k less than sticker
the day they got discontinued, in UAE, since it was essentially a Jaguar
S-Type. It made me happier than buying a $45k stripped BMW would have.

I also put a lot of effort into getting great headphones, great keyboard,
etc., and a chair that I like.

I didn't put weeks of research into buying bowls. I saw they were cheap on
slickdeals, noticed I needed bowls, and bought some on sale. I don't really
research who makes the best bottled water at Costco, I just get whatever is
cheap at the time.

Pick your battles.

------
mrknmc
He should post a list of such things.

~~~
dcurtis
The problem is that "the best" is different for everyone. I can post some of
the things that are the best to me, but it's also about the journey of finding
out what really matters to you.

~~~
pm
Not for all things. I presume no-one wants a hiking bag with zips that come
undone, nor a wallet that deforms.

I would also rather let someone do that work for me, if they feel so inclined
to do it, as I have neither the time nor the money to engage in such
activities.

So please, post a list!

------
giblfiz
This post makes me think of many of the concepts from "zen and the art of
motorcycle maintenance".

For those who haven't read it, it focuses heavily on the nature of quality
(how it is both somewhat universal, and somewhat a matter of taste) and the
spiritual nature that quality can contain.

to mapgrep, the first poster, I would suggest that not all things concerning
or focusing on physical objects are materialism. One could even argue that
dcurt is attempting to _avoid_ having to think about material objects once he
has bought them, that this is what he means by "trusting" the things he owns.

------
ben0x539
Couldn't someone have editoralized that title? It's not very informative.

~~~
skreech
It is indeed not the best title. Is it the best article?

------
milroc
I don't understand why there is so much talk of this article being so very
materialistic. It's kind of the mentality of a good number of individuals who
did or are wanting to try a very minimalistic style of travel (others exist
obviously: ignore certain needs (for me: don't bring a computer; for others:
only the clothes on your back); buy and throw away each time you're somewhere
new (only works in certain areas of the world with certain high budgets); etc.
This however is the majority view point for vagabonding. Invest in key items
that meet your exact needs (knowing your needs is an important aspect of
this). If you do this beforehand you won't be stuck in some country without a
passport because it fell out of the hole in your siblings old backpack.

If you ignore the anecdote about flatware you realize that the article
describes minimalism at it's core. Ensuring all your needs are met with the
minimal amount of goods. There is one flaw with this concept of "The Best"
that individuals who follow this mantra tend to lose sight of another very
important aspect - time. While Daniel Curtis clearly showed his obsession by
buying 20 different sets to determine which is the best for him. I imagine
that others don't have that amount of time to invest in this decision.

I am this way with most purchases; if you have something that will
significantly improve the quality of life you have or something that while not
necessarily a need but has moved to a desired addition to your lifestyle,
spend the time to find the best fit for you. If it is not worth the time to
look for what is the best fit for you; don't purchase it because you merely
want it.

~~~
fudged71
Agree and disagree.

It sounds to me like the void created by ditching his personal goods was
replaced with the time to find 'the best' possible items. To the point of
obsession. In fact, I'm glad he stuck to an essential item like silverware
rather than the luxury goods that I'm sure he's got.

In that sense, I think it contrasts the idea of minimalism.

Obsessive maximalism.

------
kidfropro
As an aspiring minimalist, I agree with Dustin's premise but not in his
universal application. I believe the goal is to maximize the utility of a
purchase, including the cost of information.

Spending an amazing amount of time researching features and the subsequent
benefits and the combinations there of are extremely valuable for objects or
services upon which we thoroughly rely. For anything less, it is just as
important give equally less energy, if any at all.

------
zerostar07
Buying the best stuff, i have no problem with that. Being the guy who always
buys the best stuff, reminds me of that phrase about the things that end up
owning you.

------
chrischen
I also think it's a consumer's responsibility to seek out the best and do a
little research. It sends the wrong signals to competitors if consumers do not
do that.

------
Donch
American Psycho.

------
antidoh
Or: you're gonna lose it anyway, so don't sink too much into it.

The only things I'm willing to spend serious money on are shoes and teeth.

------
Steko
Call me crazy but imho "most functional set of flatware in the world" will not
have 2 forks and 2 spoons.

------
ftwinnovations
I bought some flatware... A spork made of titanium. Why? Because I saw an ad
on a nerd gear website. I've had it for years, and eat everything I can with
it. But I don't have a strange obsession with everything being the best. But I
love my titanium spork.

To each their own I guess.

------
mbubb
Made me think of something that I havent in years. Kant's 'purposeful
purposelessness' - a definition of the aesthetic purpose.

Buying 20 sets of cutlery is most definately hyperbole (or no tit doesnt
matter) - I think mapgrep is mistaken to link this idea to Steve Jobs and the
couch... It is one thing to be an audiophile to have the best stereo; it is
another altogether if you love sound.

I like the idea from the article. Made me think of the process of selectign a
'go bag' but not for emergencies, for eternity.

I am glad such madness exists and I am not insulted by it. I am no there but I
get the impulse.

------
seeingfurther
I don't know what all the fuss is about. Dustin is clearly a minimalist and
his essay flies in the face of our modern disposable economy. Maybe he didn't
spell that out explicitly but it's implicit in his argument. I too won't own a
product unless it markedly improves my life and I know it will last the test
of time (maybe not socks). I think people are confusing a pervasive cultural
obsession of having to own the latest and greatest of EVERYTHING, with
Dustin's idea of owning the perfect amount of the perfect thing.

------
brasmasus
Wow, polarizing. Seems like the opposition is mostly reacting to the idea of
intensively researching to find 'the best'...but why not let Dustin and those
that think like him do what they want with their time? Once you find someone
like that, you can take their advice instead of doing the research. And all
this grief is pretty ironic considering the love for tech fetish sites like
anandtech and tomshardware.

Moreover, given the option, why _wouldn't you_ want to surround yourself with
art that you appreciate at every glance?

------
DanBC
Eh, I prefer the cutlery from Pott.
(<https://pinterest.com/pin/278519558175121239/>)

Guy DeGrenne does nice cutlery too.
(<https://pinterest.com/pin/278519558175121407/>)

The worst? (<http://pinterest.com/pin/278519558175126518/>) - this
abomination.

Pinterest links used because, let's be honest, that's the best place for this
kind of stuff.

------
Fando
I love the philosophy! Many miss the point because they take the article
literally. It's not about materialism, the article is about the benefit of
cultivating a behavioural trait regarding the process by which one attains
knowledge. It can pertain to something as simple as the craft of a fork or to
a more abstract and complex idea such as the structure of industry. Thanks for
the read.

------
jwilliams
That flatware has design issues. I went through a lot of knife/fork
combinations. The little "nubs" on these serves a few important purposes.

1\. It gives an easier point to grip, particularly for people that have
problems gripping.

2\. It stops liquid (e.g. a juicy steak) from dribbling down the fork on to
your hand.

Of course, it doesn't look at cool...

------
MortenK
232 comments and counting, I never knew $10 utensils could be such an
intriguing and polarizing subject.

------
nadam
It would take an extreme amount of time and quite a lot of money to apply this
philosophy if you have a family with small children (like me). I am quite
minimalist and selective in my work, but do not (and cannot) apply the same
philosophy for my life.

~~~
tobyjsullivan
I don't think it's blank and white, or a matter of either you can do it or you
can't. I'm sure even for Mr. Curtis there are some things that he just can't
bother to find the best of (even if he implies otherwise) such as, say,
mechanical pencil leads.

For a family man there are most likely some big purchases that you could apply
this philosophy to. A television set or maybe a new home phone or a tablet PC.
I suspect the conclusion for all three would ultimately be that you need none
but short of that, researching the best and getting it once would still be
worthwhile.

Even if you don't have the time to re-evaluate the cereal selection every time
you go grocery shopping.

------
grinich
_Buy the best, cry once._

------
Peteris
Reminding me of that Motorolla Droid add with the guy living with his devices
and bed in an open concrete square house. Thoroughly optimal design is
neutral, soulless and impersonal, it is frightening.

------
SonicSoul
i tend to agree with this philosophy. although i don't spend as much time as
OP in selecting the perfect item, I do agree that finding something of great
quality will pay dividends for years to come. My dad bought the very best Sony
tv he could find when he came to America in the 80's, and that thing was still
in use (and looking good!) up until a few years ago. In this example it
actually saved us money, but in other cases (i.e. my first nice car), it just
brought lots of joy to use it every single day.

------
alexmr
I like the loosely follow this philosophy without it taking over my life.
finding a person/source you trust a ton and buying what they say is helpful,
for example thewirecutter.com

------
shurcooL
Am I the only one who has seen this article before?

Maybe it was a draft or not public (doubtful, because Dustin isn't close to
me), but I'm sure I've read it or a similar version about a year ago.

------
adebelov
i think this is an incredible post. We rarely embrace the art and quality it
takes to build things that we use everyday (toothbrushes, wallets, backpacks,
forks, etc.), but in search for them, you encounter people that built them and
an incredible story behind them.

Very inspiring to strive to surround yourself with best of everything.

------
namank
I would be wary of your 'intrinsic side effect' carrying over to your
relationships and human interactions.

------
heed
>What is ultimately important in life are people

What's important in life is whatever you define is important.

------
Myrmornis
Neurotic materialism. Or a joke.

------
andrewartajos
The best is usually expensive.

------
negamax
Is anybody else surprised by the hate mongering in the comments and losing the
essence of the post altogether?

------
leeoniya
who is upvoting this? why? hackernews has gone to shit.

~~~
swah
Interesting pg commented here saying hn has gone to shit too, but for
criticizing the post.

~~~
leeoniya
i will re-quote from earlier in this thread.

"People congregate around narcissists. The more epic the narcissism, the more
epic the congregation. And it goes in the other direction too: epic
congregation implies epic narcissism."

------
aldopinga
hn algoritm...

------
vertr
"The result–being able to blindly trust the things you own–is intensely
liberating."

It seems somewhat pathetic that psychological liberation should come from
choosing the correct personal possessions. I think a better form of liberation
would be to shift focus away from possessions entirely.

------
javajosh
If one attacks the OP for being materialistic, then one misses the entire
point.

This post is about minimizing hypocrisy. Too often we do not pay attention to
the things that others have built for us. We, the builders and the makers, do
not pay enough attention to the builders and the makers that influence our
lives! Don't we wish that our customers would pay close attention when they
are deciding whether to use our products? Of course we do.

Dustin's materialism is the symmetry to the Hacker ethos of making, and if you
think he's doing something wrong than you sir are no hacker.

~~~
fudged71
"The Best" that Dustin describes isn't built for "us".

It doesn't even represent the highest of form and/or function. Merely the
exhaustion of research into the topic.

It's easy to be stuck in one field and obsessing over the smallest details,
but I agree that it's good to branch out and see what obsession is happening
in other fields. (In particular, consumer products). Although, remixing those
ideas can get messy (see: Skeuomorphism).

