Things that make the world go round and drive me crazy!

The toilet thinga ma bob in the toilet breaks... yeah you know the thing that regulates the water flow into the sistern.. that thing. i say to myself, ah this is going to be easy, every hardware store from here to timbucktwo must have a replacement part?
well that was my first mistake. My second mistake is thinking that the parts 20 yrs ago are the same as the parts today.
I mean that part thing i can fully understand, technologies change and move on, even in the toilet bowl world. However the scarcity of the regulator as a part thing does surprise me - because you cant just buy the part, you have to buy the system and the system is different for each manufacturer, so you have to buy seperate parts that are compatible with the system.

Bottom line is i came out with almost a whole new toilet to change a leaking valve! Now in marketing jargon this is called product differentiation! Manufacturers love this, consumers hate it. Manufacturers love to tell you what differentiates their product from the next one until its coming out of your ears, we all say " why doesnt the so-and-so product part fit the so-and-so competition product part?".
- ah dah, because they want to make the most money out of you they can. Convenience, even though the marketing speak would say otherwise, is not the first thing they had in mind. they were thinking how can we make this product different so that it isnt compatible. The returns and margins are in the exclusivity or otherness of one's product.

Exclusivity and is just another word for protecting the ego of the manufacturer and ours. The ego of the man/men who designed it are protected because their names come to stand on a product that is other to any other the competition has and our egos are protected because we think we have something unique.
however the uniqueness of a product is tested when it breaks and needs to be repaired or replaced.
Surely this ego stuff takes its toll on everything from production costs, to durability, replacement and even enviromental impact.

The great ego story for me, even though it is not manufactured, is the different electricity sockets in different countries. To protect national interest this system was devised. The electricity is the same, but how one draws it out of the wall is worlds apart.
In a global society, it seems a little silly, but silly is what has made the world go round almost from day one.