Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

BuddingFarmer t1_j3q1joo wrote

Imagine a company made 5000 cast iron pans. In that 5000,many had flaws but a few were near perfect and didn't break over the next 100 years. Only 5 of them still exist unbroken, but no one thinks about the broken ones. So when someone shows off their 100 year old pan, they say that new stuff isn't made to last 100 years anymore. However the truth is that 99.9% of those pans weren't made to last 100 years, they just got lucky with the one that survived.

That's survivorship bias.

35

PuzzleheadedLow4687 t1_j3q20rr wrote

It's the same argument that goes "the Victorians built all their buildings to look really pretty and last 200 years". No, they built some of their buildings that way. All the crappy and ugly Victorian buildings have long since fallen down or been demolished.

27

-Chris-V- t1_j3qqvud wrote

As someone who live in a very ugly impossible to heat house from the victorian era, I feel heard. It hasn't fallen down yet, but man it's on its way.

10

Gnarlodious t1_j3qrgqr wrote

Paraphrasing, most antique cars are Ford Model A. Not because they were built so well or a great value, but rather because more were sold than any other. That’s why I will always recommend the Ford Model A as BIFL.

5

Kall_Me_Kapkan t1_j3umyny wrote

Depends who made the pan, a rare Lodge is definately worth posting.

Electric mixers from the 50s covered in plastic is a piece of garbage though, don't care if it's the original robot coup.

1