Stop saying "survivorship bias" about antiques and look at the actual item

I was coming at it from the angle of practicality, not to disprove survivorship: when you see an antique machine posted here, or in real life, it's good to actually look at it to see whether it's well made, and whether you too might want to get one. I don't know why I care so much about this; it's kind of embarrassing actually. The usual internet peri-troll stuff I guess?

You can totally get an overview of what all was available in what year: look at catalogs and look at the specs, or look in history books; or, for people in, say, a family appliance store business, they would have an idea of what all was available when, and you can ask people like that about whether or not quality has increased or decreased.

Yes things were way more expensive way back when, but what's nice is that it's relatively cheap for us now.

The tasks are still as simple; today they tend to be made unnecessarily complicated, like by putting electronics on toasters, etc.

The 2017 gas cooktop will be able to be judged on its structural merits, not just on its survivorship.

None of this is very important; I posted because I was reading other posts and got the idea that people were being put off of great old machines, and I'm kind of an enthusiast, so it seemed sad! lol

/r/BuyItForLife Thread Parent