Planned Obsolescence (Or... What My Dad Taught Me)

Posted on Aug 5, 2011

So there I was…

Crouched on my knees, back-brace firmly around my waist, screwdriver in hand and attempting to decipher the wordless instructions to a new desk for my kids from a furniture company to remain nameless (hint: think Swedish Meatballs), when a strange, almost prescient thought popped into my head…

Actually, I was assembling two desks.  Identical.  We bought them for my kids who are now 5 and 7 and in just one month’s time starting Kindergarten and 2nd grade respectively.  No more doing homework at the counter of the bustling kitchen.  Time for a dedicated schoolwork space in the once and future Living Room now being transformed into more of a Family Room.

Each desk will have a lamp, a place for crayons and pencils and of course an iMac.  The Kids will be on their own separate network with dedicated, router based, auto-updating, cloud-connected, parental controls.  (But that’s for another blog).  Make an appointment to tour our demo house and in addition to an amazing Crestron Automation System, Acoustic Innovations Dedicated Theater and Lutron Lighting Control System, you can see our new homework desks.

Back to our hero…

There I was in the Family Room/Living Room, in the fatherly fetal position – head and shoulders slid under the desk and facing upward with screwdriver in hand.  I was attempting to secure one of those screw grabber things that you turn to lock onto one of those half-screw, half-lag bolt things.  (You now understand why I got into AV and not furniture building) when this strange image popped into my head.

Maybe it was because earlier as I toiled, I was thinking of my Dad.  When I was a kid my father would do this type of assembly.  I was fairly handy and very eager.  So I was always his assistant.  He taught me to be mechanically inclined, to tighten clockwise, to always respect a bare electrical wire.  “The Man with the Right Tools gets the job done right” he always said to me.  That and the Russian proverb, “The morning is always smarter than the night” have stayed with me for years and are some guiding principals I use in life, work and fatherhood.  As I worked, I had been thinking of my Dad who passed away this past Spring and my kids who are not quite old enough to pick up hammer and screwdriver and assist me (but soon).  Those thoughts probably triggered or in some way set the stage for the one I had next…

As I was securing top part A, to small leg base B with Cam Lock C (yes, I really do know what those locking nuts are called),  the life of the desk I was assembling flashed before my eyes.

I saw an image in my mind of the future -  of me disassembling a worn, stained, scratched and well used version of this desk.  A version haggard from years of happy use, hard studying and the like.  That image was quickly followed by an alternate vision of this old weary desk outside on the driveway among other cluttered junk being offered up in a yard sale.

You make think me moribund or a glass half-empty kind of guy.  And perhaps I am.  But in an odd way, this burning bush moment gave me some comfort.  I thought, its ok.  If I get 15-20 years of good use out of this $129 desk (which is nicer than its price makes it sound) that would be great.  Even if my kids outgrow them in five years and my visions never materialize or they come true sooner than I think, I would still be satisfied with the investment and its lifespan.  In other words, when it comes to my new home furnishings, I’ve done my obsolescence planning.

So what about the more wallet bending investments we make in our home?  Yes, the Automation, Computer/Networking and Entertainment Systems.  The irony is that they are typically larger investments than a kid’s homework desk and while we know deep down in our guts that the next generation of technology will be rolling off the assembly line before we’ve gotten today’s latest and greatest installed, we purposefully avoid planning for their obsolescence.  It’s just too painful.  Downright depressing even.  The thought of my brand new 64” Ultra Slim LED 3D display being obsolete in 5-7 years time makes me a little nauseated; 1-2 years makes me catatonic.  So how in this crazy world of new TV models every 3 months, new computer generations every 6 months and new cell phone and tablet advances seemingly twice a week do we plan for obsolescence without ending up in a padded room or debtor’s prison?

My suggestion is pretty simple.  Just do it.  Just plan for it.  With both mind and budget.  As a purveyor of these types of goods, I would love to tell you that they will all last forever and you will pass them along to your children the way I recently handed down my childhood LEGOS to my kids.  But I sell from the heart and my heart would develop a murmur if it told you otherwise.

As with any technology purchase, you have to decide what features you want now, select the components and systems that have those capabilities plus a little overhead for room to grow and then make your decision.  That’s right.  Make your decision, knowing the clock has started ticking and you have made an investment that will last for the the electronic’s lifetime, not yours.

Today’s flat panel installs are replacing the ones we did 5-7 years ago.  Home Theater Projector lamps have a life of about 2-3 years.  But in 5 you’ll likely want to advance to the next technology.  As long as you go in planning for obsolescence you will make better decisions and not feel blindsided, distraught and dismayed when the digital grim reaper comes knocking at your entertainment equipment cabinet door.

The good news/silver lining in all this is that there a handful of systems that resist obsolescence quite nicely.  Crestron for example is a 50 year old company and only now on their 3rd generation of control processor.  By designing their systems to be incredibly expandable and upgradeable they have managed to stay extremely current while not requiring a complete redo.  Yes certain aspects of 10 year old Crestron systems need refreshing and the touch panel/interfaces get faster, fancier and flashier as time goes by, but the core of the system has remained stable.  Even their latest 3 Series processor and new programming tools will work with and are based on those that came before.

Lutron is another example.  They invented home lighting control systems as we know them back in the early 90’s and those systems are still running houses quite nicely.  Granted they can’t  be controlled by an iPad without upgrading, but even when we do those upgrades it often does not require a 100% changeout, but rather a piecemeal improvement.

And of course there are speakers.  While cheap speakers age poorly and yearn to be replaced sooner than later, good quality speakers, treated well and fed with plenty of clean amplifier power can last years and years.  I truly expect to own my Totems (and I have a lot of them) for many years to come.  It may be overly optimistic on my part to think I will bequeath them on to my kids – but you never know.

So, like the old saying goes a failure to plan is a plan to fail the same holds true for your electronics.  A failure to plan for obsolescence is a plan for you to be talking on your Motorola Flip phone while everyone else is FaceTiming on their iPhones.

And if this is all confusing, overwhelming and making your head spin… turn off the computer, iPad or whatever device your reading this on that will be obsolete in 6 months and get some sleep.  Someone pretty clever once told me, “The Morning is always smarter than the night”  (That one’s for you, Dad.  Love you.)

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