Things worth knowing, explained plainly
There is a whole class of products where the machine is close to a giveaway and the supplies are where the money is. Printers are the famous case, but the pattern is everywhere: the coffee machine that only…
Read the article →The discount on a used item is genuine, and it is also a payment. You are being paid to take on some risk, to give up some recourse, to accept a shorter remaining life, and to spend your…
Read the article →A bill is designed to be paid, not read. The first page is a summary with a big number, a due date, and some encouragement about switching to paperless. The document that would actually tell you something is…
Read the article →People come home from a good restaurant and try to work out what was in the sauce. Usually the answer is nothing exotic. The soup was seasoned three times on its way to the bowl, the vegetables were…
Read the article →Children and dogs have one important thing in common on a walk: they will not tell you when something is going wrong. A child will keep trudging while getting quietly, dangerously cold. A dog will keep going straight…
Read the article →Ask someone what their rent or mortgage costs and they will tell you to the last unit. Ask what they spend on food, transport or the small stuff and the answer is a guess, and the guess is…
Read the article →