Imagine for a moment that a company – PP Inc. – had made the Perfect Product. That is, a product that is perfectly attuned to the human condition in the physical and emotional sense, is as cheap to produce as possible (and able to be easily switched to a new material when raw material prices fluctuate), is infinitely recyclable (which shouldn’t even be a huge deal, because the things would be durable as hell), and has truly timeless style.

What would happen then?

Would PP Inc. never do a redesign? never add any features?

Of course they would. They would add a rubber grip, shock absorber, spoiler, some fancy trim, etc. They would then use fuzzy logic (marketing) to convince you that these features are in fact benefits, which is impossible because we started with the Perfect Product.

They do it not to clutter the world (although that is invariably what happens), but to satiate our distorted sensibilities that too often prefer new to perfect. It’s the same perspective that allowed ideas like “planned obsolescence” to proliferate.

But we can change.

Imagine a world where we truly treasure perfection over newness. Development cycles become longer because companies aim for perfection. You don’t have companies cutting corners to make sure they are in production by Christmas, because people will recognize Quality regardless of the time of year. We become less a society of consumers and more a society of curators: we still surround ourselves with stuff, we would just give a shit about it’s real Quality.

We would demand perfection, and I wonder what the world would look like if we got it.

reduce.