An old debate: Quantity vs Quality

Post Reply New Topic

0.266m/s, and that's a really light astronaut (consider the mass of the spacesuit as well) as well as a ridiculously heavy wrench.

quality vs quantity...

is a false dichotomy.

Granted, however it is an opposition of two dichotonomies (quality or crap, a lot or not much). They hold quite a lot of importance in economic situations.

Such as an household type economic decision of "would I rather have 50 White Castle Sliders or a meal with my wife at Buca di Beppo?"

Fine, so you have an anorexic tank repairman for an astronaut. Either way, such fields as physics do have generalities which are generally true (at least within the perimeters of the tests conducted which provide data relevant to their cogency.) When dropping heavier than air items near the surface of the earth which have nearly the same terminal velocity, it is generally true that they will fall at the same rate. As the altitude of drop point increases the ranges of error for each increases incurring differences, but within such perimeters the generalities are still cogent. For people to claim that the complexity of factors involved eliminates the possibility of cogent induction is basically to pretend that there is no order possible to determine. In other words, if they weren't just performing mathematical algorithms already determined, they would not be of a mindset likely to determine them since they have been socially indoctrinated to reject the possibility of inductive inference.

Maybe I can shoehorn clothes into this. Incredibly expensive couture does exist and wealthy people buy it. But clothing companies would not be able to survive on couture alone. The market, however wealthy, is just too small. They use the couture to get their name out there and then actually make their big money on lower quality but far more affordable versions of the couture. There are very few people who can afford to buy couture- or bespoke suits-no matter how carefully made and wonderful it is. But people have to wear something and so a moderate amount of crap at a moderate price is what it is.

And here we come to where the economics of this figures into the obesity problem.

If you don't have a lot of money, the 50 White Castle sliders are a better use of what little money you have. The single meal at Buca de Beppo is gone and digested within a day. No matter what you order there, it's going to be healthier than White Castle sliders. But it also won't last you as long and buying it is not a wise use of your food money if you don't have much of that food money.

And this is one of the reasons why poor people are more at risk for obesity. You can get more calories for less money if you buy food that is less healthy. Fat and high fructose corn syrup aren't very expensive at all. Lots of people opt for buying as many calories as they can with the little money they have and so, economically, crap food is the better bargain. Healthwise it isn't.

I know. I know. Farm stands have good produce cheap around harvest time and beans are healthy and cheap year round. And lots of poor people actually do eat a lot of beans. Then they enhance the flavor with cheap fat instead of expensive olive oil.

Actually, you can buy more calories and eat healthier if you buy the ingredients at a grocery store. It costs a fair bit less too, although it does require actually spending time in the kitchen cooking as opposed to blowing the money at a restaurant. Restaurants are a nice getaway from the stress of having to cook, but even fast food is far more expensive for the cost of the food than it is to make the food at home.

It depends on the situation.

Its a difference between application of the item vs its result. Applying a low tech, low quality, cheap 'solution' in large numbers can solve a problem faster to a larger client base than an expensive, high quality, high tech solution that only a small client base can afford.

If the application is intended to be used by a small client base then quality is absolutely a must. Your education is a 1-person client base so in this case quality is a must. You can load yourself with lots of courses and do mediocre grades in them and graduate... but your chances of going on to a masters degree program are limited thanks to your crappy grades. OTH if your grades were high and you still graduated you will easily get into a master's program.

I'm in that situation now actually. I want to get my masters in archeology but first I have to finish my anthropology major. Im taking 6 courses per semester so its a very heavy load... but im not risking getting low grades. Before each semester I research what teachers offer classes i can take the next semester and have them give me a syllabus and a description of the homework/assignments of the course so I dont end up overwhelmed. So yeah, im choosing teachers that focus more on classwork than homework. I learn more that way too.

I think that popular misconception is an even bigger contributor to the obesity problem. Did you know that 50 White Castles has almost the same amount of calories as a large portion lasagna dinner at Buca di Beppo? Assuming one person is unlikely to sit down to 5 sacks but more likely to eat a full dinner, you can see how someone might think they're making a better choice, when in fact, they're not. Furthermore, I believe that Sysco is the supplier of both restaurants so you're essentially eating the same crap wherever you go.

5 a day or 5 per meal (3 meals a day.)? Regardless of calorific maths, if you eat once at a restaurant, then do not eat again for the time it takes to eat through 50 of these White Castle things at either rate, its pretty damn clear which one will make you feel hungrier.

There is an assumption in this thread that speed impairs quality. Not true. Some people can produce excellent work at great speeds, which is often a reflection of talent. Adversely, some people will produce half-assed crap no matter how long they have to complete the task.