Is "Good Enough" the Future of Technology?

himitsu writes "In an article titled 'The Good Enough Revolution: When Cheap and Simple Is Just Fine,' Wired claims that the future of technology, warfare and medicine will be filled with 'good enough' solutions; situations where feature-rich and expensive products are replaced with bare-bones infrastructures and solutions. 'We now favor flexibility over high fidelity, convenience over features, quick and dirty over slow and polished. Having it here and now is more important than having it perfect. These changes run so deep and wide, they're actually altering what we mean when we describe a product as "high-quality."'"

wrong

[JeanBaptiste]

The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea. They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by small robots.

Re:Just Stupid

[mvdwege]

Yeah. It's not as if Richard Gabriel's "The Rise of Worse is Better" was written yesterday.

Then again, magazines like Wired live by 'discovering' things that are long known and then gushing about it to a public that doesn't know about it, to make it appear as if they are on the bleeding edge and, you know, totally radical.

Mart

Re:Its always been this way

[Tubal-Cain]

Its easier to recycle it and build next year's model, which will be cheaper.

Pfft. My mother had had a certain washing machine for as long as I can remember. Never even serviced, as far as I know. New dryers, however, haven't lasted very long. She managed to get an one second-hand from a neighbor (maybe 10 years old) and hasn't had any problems since.

Re:wrong

[lorteau]

Modded 'informative'?? Are we only 2, the other one being Klobbersaurus, to have spotted the Simpsons quote?

Re:Sweet Spot

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

'Good Enough' is how technology has always been.

Yes. Even Voltaire famously said, "The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good."

Re:Sweet Spot

[dangitman]

The 100$ video card tends to have 50% of the performance of the 200$ one, which has 50% of the performance of the 400$ one.

Not in reality.

Re:What's the rush?

[vakuona]

The iPhone multitasks very well actually. Apple just won't let other apps multitask. For example, if you are on a call, you can be checking your email, and still receive sms'es. It would kill the battery though, so they won't let other apps multitask. Besides, I have used a Windows mobile phone, and hated the multitasking feature because it meant a lot of programs in the background using precious battery. Besides, Windows mobile sucks. Loads. Horrible example to compare with iPhoneOS.

Re:Windows Vista: "Good Enough" is the right answe

[Strangeface]

Just BTW, the Nano does have seatbelts as they're mandatory on Indian roads now. It also meets all the safety requirements of a car running in India. This is not to say that either it, or Indian safety requirements are perfect, but that it does fulfill them.