[帮主说] 买洗衣机

如果媒体业也有一个Apple Inc,那应该就是《连线》杂志(Wired)了,不过,这杂志似乎跟乔布斯气场不和(其实似乎也没有谁和,只有 Fortune 还能每两、三年采访他一次)。多年来,《连线》只采访过一次乔某人,还是1996年NeXT阶段。

访问者是 Gary Wolf,  Wired - a Romance(中译《〈连线〉传奇》)一书的作者。

在我看来,这里面最有趣的问题,是文章的最后一个问题:

Is there anything well designed today that inspires you?

Design is not limited to fancy new gadgets. Our family just bought a new washing machine and dryer. We didn't have a very good one so we spent a little time looking at them. It turns out that the Americans make washers and dryers all wrong. The Europeans make them much better - but they take twice as long to do clothes! It turns out that they wash them with about a quarter as much water and your clothes end up with a lot less detergent on them. Most important, they don't trash your clothes. They use a lot less soap, a lot less water, but they come out much cleaner, much softer, and they last a lot longer.

We spent some time in our family talking about what's the trade-off we want to make. We ended up talking a lot about design, but also about the values of our family. Did we care most about getting our wash done in an hour versus an hour and a half? Or did we care most about our clothes feeling really soft and lasting longer? Did we care about using a quarter of the water? We spent about two weeks talking about this every night at the dinner table. We'd get around to that old washer-dryer discussion. And the talk was about design.

We ended up opting for these Miele appliances, made in Germany. They're too expensive, but that's just because nobody buys them in this country. They are really wonderfully made and one of the few products we've bought over the last few years that we're all really happy about. These guys really thought the process through. They did such a great job designing these washers and dryers. I got more thrill out of them than I have out of any piece of high tech in years.

这段话,讲的是乔布斯家刚买一个洗衣机的故事。他说,为了买一个洗衣机,