Unnecessary Product Development

Hello once again. In the immortal words of Monty Python "and now for something completely different." Last time I wrote about self defense, this time I'm here to write about "Unnecessary Product Development". Its the title and everything. This post is actually going to be doing what this blog set out to do. Whinge meaninglessly on the internet. Don't expect any intelligent debate or important subject matter here. This one is just me complaining and it's about time too! There has been way too many important discussions going on... So lets not waste time and get right down to it.

Have you ever been shaving or washing something or been brushing your teeth and thought to yourself "This product is good and all, I mean it's perfectly serviceable and does the job it was designed to do very well, but I wish an extra couple of million pounds could be spent on it" or "If only those top research scientists had put a bit more elbow grease into designing this state of the art razor"?

No? Well I don't know how you would answer, this is a piece of text not a conversation, but I would guess no. Even though the majority will say to themselves "These things I own are more than good enough" companies will continue to pump out new products everyday. Just think about all the "advances" in sharp blades to cut off facial hair there have been in the last 10 years. The last 5 years even. Is it really necessary? I would argue no it bloody isn't.

The poster child for this sort of ridiculousness is, of course, razor blades. From my extensive research (2 minutes on Google and reading through a Guardian news story from 2008) this stupid arms race began with the release of the 3 bladed Gillette Mach3 in 1998. Now ignoring the frankly idiotic name ( I could rant for so long about stupid product names) do you want to know how much it cost to research the addition of one blade? To go from the previous 2 blades to the Mach3 3 blades? $680 million. That's like having 680 bags containing 1 million dollars each (just to make it clear).

How many schools could you build with $680 million? How many doctors could you pay? How many nurses could you train? How many people who live in poverty could you feed, clothe and give shelter to? Just think, this isn't the budget for every razor blade developed in the world, this is the budget for ONE razor blade developed in 1998. It's not just razors though is it. There are new washing detergents and surface cleaners ("Kills 99.9% of bacteria!" I need to do a post about how bad this is...) and soaps and anti-perspirants and thousands of other products and literally billions is being spent on their development. 

Now don't misunderstand me, I am not a communist. I understand the importance of a competitive market and companies have to spend ridiculous amounts to keep up with the competition. These companies employ a huge number of people and generate millions in tax. So all good and happy. Well...

I can't help  but think about how unnecessary it all is. A two or even one bladed razor is really, when you think about it, good enough. Do washing up liquids really need to be any better than they already are? Do tooth brushes really need advancing much further? Is it time we just sort of said "Ok guys thanks for all the hard work but I think we can give it a rest now"? All of these developments have improved peoples lives, people are living longer thanks to these products and aren't risking septicemia every morning tackling their stubble, but we don't need anything more now. This is how these companies work they create need and then fill it for you but what we have to realize is that these are not needs anymore. They were solved years ago. You don't need an electric razor that has a soothing balm or sonically powered super lasers with flashing lights and hundreds of buttons. 

I'm not calling for a revolution, I'm not asking people to burn there fancy schmancy electric razors and go back to using flint shards what I'm saying is that now we have these amazingly efficient products lets just stop. Done. Problem solved. More than good enough. Well done humanity! Lots of problems solved by your ingenuity once again! Now can we move onto the other problems in society please?

As a lover of science, to ask for an end to research is akin to a member of the Taliban asking if Allah is really all that great or a fireman asking if they really need to put out the fire because "it's just an orphanage" but I think we have more pressing troubles in the world right now, more interesting avenues of research than the length of people's facial hair. Think of all the scientists and researchers staring at videos of razors under microscopes. I feel for them... I don't know how to bring about the change so that everyone goes "You know what? This one is good enough." but I do so hope that one day it happens. Man's love of novelty has unfortunately created as many problems as it has helped to solve and I believe one of those problems is being fascinated with the newest fanciest razor simply because it's the newest. 

Please next time you see the release of a fancy new product that tells you its 150% better than the previous product just think, is an extra 150% of product really needed?