Hey everyone, welcome back to My Weird Prompts. I am Corn, and I am sitting here on our balcony in Jerusalem, looking at the exact same plastic storage bins that Daniel was talking about in his prompt today. It is a bit of a graveyard out here, honestly. One of the doors is currently held shut with a bungee cord because the plastic hinges just... they just gave up the ghost after one too many hot summers. The sun here is brutal, Herman. It feels like it just eats anything that is not made of stone or ancient cedar.
Herman Poppleberry here. And yeah, those bins are the perfect example of what we call the false economy of the cheap. You buy it because it is affordable and it solves a problem for six months, but the moment the ultraviolet radiation hits that specific grade of polypropylene, it starts to get brittle. It is a process called photo-degradation. The UV rays break the polymer chains, and suddenly, your "weatherproof" cabinet has the structural integrity of a dry cracker. It is almost like it is designed to return to the earth, just not in a helpful, biodegradable way. It just turns into microplastics that blow into your neighbor's herb garden. Today's prompt from Daniel is about that exact struggle, the Buy It For Life philosophy, or B I F L. He is asking about products that are actually worth the investment and which brands still prioritize making things that last in an era of planned obsolescence.
It is a fascinating topic because it feels like we are living in the age of the disposable. Everything from our phones to our fast-fashion shirts seems to have an expiration date baked into the design. It is exhausting, really. You feel like you are on a treadmill of constantly replacing things that should just work. But Daniel brought up his Redback boots, and those are a staple here in Israel. You see them everywhere, from construction sites in Tel Aviv to high-end cafes in Rehavia. Why is it that a pair of boots can last ten years while a five-hundred-dollar outdoor cabinet falls apart in two?
It comes down to material science and, more importantly, repairability and the intent of the manufacturer. Redback is a great starting point for this conversation. They are an Australian brand, and the reason they have such a cult following, especially here, is the sole construction and the quality of the leather. They use a specific type of heat-molded, translucent shell sole that does not delaminate as easily as the glued-on soles you find on cheaper work boots. Most boots use a "cemented" construction, which is just a fancy way of saying they glued the bottom to the top. Once that glue fails due to heat or moisture, the boot is dead. Redbacks are injection-molded, which creates a much stronger bond. But even more than that, the B I F L community loves them because the leather is thick, full-grain hide that can take a beating and still be conditioned back to life.
I have noticed that with my own gear. I have a leather messenger bag I bought nearly a decade ago, and every time it looks a bit scuffed or dry, I just rub some leather balm into it, and it looks better than new. It develops a patina. It tells a story. But you cannot do that with a plastic shed. You cannot rub balm into a cracked plastic hinge and expect it to heal. There is no "patina" on a cracked storage bin; there is just trash.
Exactly. That is the first rule of Buy It For Life: Choose materials that age gracefully or can be repaired. Leather, cast iron, solid wood, stainless steel, and high-quality brass. These are materials that do not just fail catastrophically the way plastics or composites do. When wood gets a scratch, you sand it. When cast iron loses its non-stick surface, you re-season it. Daniel mentioned his flip-flops being the opposite of B I F L, and that is a tough category. Most flip-flops are just a slab of E V A foam with a rubber strap. The foam compresses over time, the strap pulls out, and they end up in a landfill. They are the definition of a "consumable" product disguised as a "durable" one.
Is there even such a thing as a B I F L flip-flop? It feels like the design itself is inherently temporary. I mean, you are literally walking on the structural component.
There are brands that get close. Rainbow Sandals is the one people usually point to in the B I F L circles. They use layers of high-density foam and a triple-glued construction, but the real key is the leather top and the parachute-grade stitching on the strap. They take a long time to break in—sometimes weeks of blisters—which is a common theme with quality goods. Quality often requires a "break-in" period. But once they mold to your feet, they last for years instead of months. And they have a repair policy. That is another hallmark of a B I F L brand: a lifetime warranty or a robust repair program. If the strap pulls out and the sole is still good, they will fix it.
That brings up a good point about the hidden cost of things. If I buy twenty-dollar flip-flops every summer for ten years, I have spent two hundred dollars. If I buy one pair of high-quality sandals for eighty dollars and they last ten years, I have saved a hundred and twenty dollars and kept nine pairs of foam out of the ocean. It is the Vimes' Boots Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness.
Oh, I love that you brought up Terry Pratchett. For those who do not know, the theory comes from his "Discworld" series. It goes that a rich person can afford fifty-dollar boots that last for years, while a poor person can only afford ten-dollar boots that last a season. After ten years, the poor person has spent a hundred dollars on boots and still has wet feet, while the rich person has spent fifty and has dry feet. Being poor is expensive because you are forced to buy things that do not last. In two thousand twenty-six, this is more relevant than ever. We are being flooded with "ultra-fast fashion" and "drop-shipped" electronics that are designed to be replaced before the credit card bill even arrives.
And that is what makes Daniel's "industrial" search hack so clever. I want to dig into that because it felt like a lightbulb moment for me. He mentioned searching for "industrial four G gateway" on Ali Express and finding a product that was only slightly more expensive but built like a tank. Why does adding the word "industrial" change the search results so drastically?
Because industrial products are built for a different set of incentives. In the consumer world, the incentive is "make it look pretty on a shelf and make it cheap enough that the customer does not think twice." In the industrial world, the incentive is "Mean Time Between Failures," or M T B F. When a company buys a router for a factory or a remote cell tower in the Negev desert, they do not care if it is slim or has pretty blue L E D lights. They care if a technician has to drive three hours into the middle of nowhere to reset it. That drive costs more than the router itself. So, industrial gear uses standard components, metal housings for heat dissipation, and, crucially, they often have external antennas and screw-down power connectors so they do not just wiggle loose.
It is funny because "industrial" design used to be an aesthetic choice, like those Edison bulbs and exposed brick in every coffee shop. But now, for people looking for quality, it is a functional choice. I have started doing this with kitchen gear. If you buy a toaster from a big-box store, it is mostly plastic and thin heating elements that are crimped together. But if you look at what a commercial kitchen uses, like a Dualit toaster, they are built to be taken apart. You can literally buy a replacement heating element for a toaster made in nineteen seventy-five and screw it in yourself. It is a machine, not a black box of mystery electronics.
Dualit is a classic B I F L brand. Another one in the kitchen space is Vitamix. People scoff at spending five hundred or six hundred dollars on a blender, but I have seen Vitamix units in professional smoothie shops that run a hundred times a day for years. They have a massive motor, but the secret is the cooling system and the fact that the blades are designed to be blunt. They pulverize things through sheer speed and power rather than a sharp edge that will eventually dull. If the motor does eventually burn out, you send it back to Ohio, and they fix it. It is a tool, not a gadget.
So, we have footwear, we have kitchenware, and we have this "industrial" hack for electronics. But Daniel raised the big contradiction: smartphones. How do you apply a Buy It For Life philosophy to a device that is technologically obsolete in four years and has a battery that chemically degrades every time you use it? It feels like the antithesis of everything we are talking about.
That is the hardest nut to crack. The smartphone industry is the poster child for planned obsolescence. Between the sealed batteries, the lack of replacement parts, and the software updates that eventually slow the hardware to a crawl, it is almost impossible to "buy it for life." However, there is a movement pushing back. You have seen the Framework laptops, right?
Yeah, the ones where every single component is modular. You can swap out the processor, the ports, the screen, everything. I love that concept. It feels like the old desktop P C days where you could keep the same case for a decade and just upgrade the internals. I saw they just released a new RISC-V mainboard for the thirteen-inch model. That is true B I F L thinking—the chassis is the "life" part, and the internals are the "upgrade" part.
Exactly. Framework is doing for laptops what B I F L enthusiasts want for everything. And in the phone world, you have the Fairphone. We are currently on the Fairphone five, and rumors of the six are already circulating. It is not quite as powerful as the latest flagship from the big players, but you can pop the back off with your fingernails and replace the battery in ten seconds. You can buy a new camera module for fifty bucks and install it with a standard screwdriver. To me, a B I F L smartphone is not one that stays the same forever, but one that is designed to be maintained. The "life" of the product is extended through modularity.
But even with a Fairphone, aren't you limited by the processor? Eventually, the apps of twenty thirty will be too demanding for a twenty twenty-four chip.
True, but if the motherboard is replaceable, you can upgrade the "brain" of the phone without throwing away the screen, the chassis, and the battery. That is the dream. But until that is mainstream, the B I F L approach to tech is usually to buy the most repairable option and then actually maintain it. That means getting the battery replaced at a shop instead of trading the whole phone in. It also means choosing software that is lightweight. But honestly, the best B I F L tech strategy is to avoid "smart" versions of things that do not need to be smart. Do not buy a "smart" fridge with a screen that will be obsolete in five years. Buy a Miele or a Sub-Zero that is built to keep things cold for twenty-five years and has zero internet connectivity.
I think there is also a mental shift that needs to happen. We are conditioned to want the "flashy new features" Daniel mentioned. But if you look at the last five years of smartphones, the improvements have been incremental. Is the camera on the newest model really ten times better than the one from three years ago? Usually, no. Most of us are just chasing a dopamine hit from a new piece of glass and metal. We have been trained to view tools as fashion statements.
Exactly. The B I F L philosophy is as much about the consumer's mindset as it is about the manufacturer's quality. It is about being okay with a device that is "good enough" for a long time. It is about valuing the scratches on your boots because they represent years of miles walked. It is a rejection of the "new is always better" narrative.
Let's talk about some other clear-cut examples where quality beats flash. Tools are a big one for me. My dad has a set of Wera screwdrivers and a heavy-duty drill from the eighties that still works perfectly. Meanwhile, I have gone through two cheap cordless drills in the last five years because the plastic gears inside just stripped out the moment I tried to drill into something harder than pine.
Tools are the ultimate B I F L category because the physics of a screwdriver or a hammer haven't changed in a century. Brands like Estwing for hammers—they are forged from a single piece of steel, so the head can never fly off. Or Leatherman for multi-tools. If you break a Leatherman, you send it to them in Portland, and they fix it or send you a new one. No questions asked. That kind of warranty is a signal that they know their product is over-engineered. They are betting that you cannot break it under normal circumstances.
What about clothing? Beyond boots, it feels like clothes are the hardest thing to find quality in nowadays. Everything is "fast fashion" made of polyester blends that pill after three washes. I feel like I am buying clothes that are designed to disintegrate.
It is tough, but there are still "heritage" brands that do it right. Patagonia is the big name there. They have their "Worn Wear" program where they encourage you to buy used gear and offer free or low-cost repairs on anything they make. I have a Patagonia fleece that is fifteen years old. The zipper broke once, I sent it in, they replaced the zipper for free, and sent it back. It is that commitment to keeping the product in use that defines them. Then you have brands like Filson or Barbour. A Barbour waxed jacket is designed to be re-waxed every year. If you take care of it, it will literally last fifty years. It becomes an heirloom.
I also think about wool. High-quality merino wool or heavy wool coats. My grandfather's wool coat is still in the family. It is heavy, it is warm, and it will probably outlive me. You compare that to a modern "puffer" jacket made of thin nylon that tears if you look at it wrong and leaks feathers everywhere.
Wool is a miracle fiber for B I F L. It is naturally antimicrobial, it regulates temperature, and if it is high quality, it can last decades. The problem is that it is expensive upfront. This brings us back to the investment aspect. A good wool coat might cost four hundred or five hundred dollars. A cheap synthetic one might cost sixty. Most people choose the sixty-dollar one because it is "good enough" for now. But the sixty-dollar one will look terrible in two years, while the five-hundred-dollar one will still look classic in twenty.
And that is the trap. We are surrounded by "good enough for now" products. Our patio furniture is the perfect example. We bought it because we needed something to sit on that weekend. Now, two years later, it is literally disintegrating into microplastics that are blowing into the neighbor's yard. If we had spent three times as much on powder-coated aluminum or sustainably harvested teak, we would still be sitting on it twenty years from now. I am literally paying a "cheapness tax" every time I have to haul a broken plastic chair to the dumpster.
And the irony is that the high-quality stuff often has a better resale value. If you buy a cheap I K E A sofa and try to sell it three years later, you might get twenty bucks for it if you are lucky. If you buy a high-end, solid wood piece or a classic Herman Miller chair, it might actually appreciate in value, or at least retain eighty percent of it. Quality is an asset; cheapness is an expense. It is a shift from "spending" to "allocating capital."
So, for someone listening who wants to start their B I F L journey, where do they begin? It can be overwhelming to think about replacing everything you own with "industrial" grade gear. You cannot just go out and spend ten thousand dollars on a new life.
I would say start with the things you use every single day. The things that "touch" you or that you rely on for your basic needs. For Daniel, it was his boots. For someone else, it might be their bed, their chef's knife, or their work bag. Pick one category and do the deep research. There is a whole community on Reddit, the Buy It For Life subreddit that Daniel mentioned, where people post photos of things they have owned for forty years. It is a great place to see what actually stands the test of time. Look for the "survivors."
I also think the "industrial" keyword is a brilliant takeaway. It is like a secret backdoor into a world of products that aren't marketed to consumers. I am going to start using that for things like power strips and outdoor lighting. I would rather have a bulky, metal power strip that can survive being stepped on than a sleek plastic one that might start a fire if it gets too warm. I noticed that industrial power strips often have replaceable fuses and much thicker internal wiring.
Just be prepared for the "industrial" aesthetic. It is often gray, heavy, and has no rounded corners. It is not "Instagrammable" in the traditional sense. But there is a certain beauty in that kind of honesty. It says, "I am here to do a job, and I am going to do it for a long time." It is the difference between a sports car and a tractor. The tractor isn't pretty, but it will still be plowing fields when the sports car is a pile of rust.
It is a form of minimalism, really. Owning fewer things, but better things. It reduces the mental load of having to constantly shop for replacements. I hate the feeling of something breaking and knowing I have to go back into the research-and-purchase cycle again. It is a drain on my time and my sanity.
That "decision fatigue" is real. When you buy for life, you make the decision once. You might spend ten hours researching the best cast iron skillet, but once you buy that Lodge or Le Creuset, you never have to think about buying a skillet again for the rest of your life. That is a huge win for your brain. You have "solved" that category of your life forever.
Let's talk about the brands that focus on consistent build quality. You mentioned Lodge and Le Creuset for the kitchen. What about other categories? For backpacks, I always hear about Osprey.
Osprey is fantastic because of their "All Mighty Guarantee." They will repair any damage or defect in any of their packs, no matter when it was purchased. If they cannot repair it, they replace it. That is the gold standard. In the world of luggage, Briggs and Riley has a similar "Simple as That" lifetime warranty that even covers damage caused by airlines. Think about that—an airline crushes your bag, and the manufacturer fixes it for free. That tells you they built it to survive an airline in the first place. They are so confident in their engineering that they are willing to take on the risk of United Airlines baggage handlers.
That is incredible. I have definitely had a suitcase lose a wheel after one trip and felt like I just threw money into a shredder. What about small electronics? Like headphones or speakers? That seems like a minefield of planned obsolescence.
That is trickier because of the batteries again. But for wired headphones, brands like Sennheiser or Beyerdynamic are legendary. You can buy replacement ear pads, replacement cables, and even replacement drivers for models they have been making since the eighties. If you buy a pair of Beyerdynamic D T seven hundred and seventy pros, you are buying a piece of studio equipment that can last twenty years. Compare that to wireless earbuds where the tiny batteries are dead in three years and cannot be replaced because they are encased in glue.
It feels like "wired" is almost a prerequisite for B I F L in electronics. If it has a cord, it has a chance. If it relies on an internal lithium-ion battery that is glued in, it has a countdown clock.
Exactly. Or, you look for products where the battery is a standard size and easily accessible. But that is becoming rarer and rarer in the consumer space. That is why Daniel's "industrial" hack is so useful. Industrial sensors and gateways often use replaceable battery packs or external power. Even in the world of power tools, sticking to a single battery ecosystem like Milwaukee or Makita can be a B I F L move, because those companies have a vested interest in keeping those battery formats stable for decades.
I want to touch on the sustainability aspect too. We often talk about "green" products, but the greenest product is the one you already own or the one you only buy once. The carbon footprint of manufacturing a high-quality item is usually higher than a cheap one because it uses more raw materials, but when you spread that footprint over thirty years instead of two, the math completely changes.
It is the ultimate form of environmentalism. Our current "circular economy" talk often focuses on recycling, but recycling is energy-intensive and often inefficient. "Reduction" and "Reuse" are higher up on the waste hierarchy for a reason. Buying a shirt that lasts ten years is infinitely better for the planet than buying ten "recycled polyester" shirts that fall apart in a year. We cannot recycle our way out of a consumption problem. We have to "quality" our way out of it.
It is also about supporting the craftsmanship. When you buy from a B I F L brand, you are often supporting companies that pay their workers better and use higher-quality raw materials. It is a vote for a world where things have value. It is a vote against the "race to the bottom" that has hollowed out so many industries.
Well said. And I think we are seeing a resurgence of this. In two thousand twenty-six, people are getting tired of the "everything-as-a-service" and the subscription-based hardware models. There is a real hunger for ownership. Real, permanent ownership. People want to feel like they actually own their tools, not just rent them from a corporation.
I agree. I think we are going to see more "right to repair" laws passing, which will force companies to make parts available. That will be a huge boost for the B I F L movement. Imagine if you could go to the hardware store and buy a new hinge for your outdoor storage unit instead of having to buy a whole new unit. We are already seeing this in the E U with the new battery regulations that started trickling in last year.
That is the dream. Until then, we just have to be savvy consumers. We have to look past the marketing and the shiny features and ask, "How is this held together? Can I fix it if it breaks? What is the warranty?" If the answer is "it is glued shut and has a ninety-day warranty," walk away. No matter how many "smart" features it has.
And don't be afraid to look at the "boring" brands. The ones that don't advertise on social media but have been around for a hundred years. They are usually doing something right. They have survived because their products work, not because their marketing is clever.
Like Stanley. Not just the trendy cups they have now, but the classic vacuum thermoses. I have seen those things dented, scratched, and dropped off trucks, and they still keep coffee hot all day. Or Zojirushi for rice cookers and thermoses. They are engineered to a level that seems almost obsessive. That is the kind of reliability we should all be aiming for.
Well, I think I have some shopping to do. Or rather, some "investing" to do. I am going to look into those aluminum storage bins. They might cost an arm and a leg, but I am tired of looking at my bungee-corded graveyard out there. I want to buy a cabinet that my kids will eventually have to figure out how to move because it is still in perfect shape.
Your future self will thank you. And so will the neighbor who doesn't have your plastic shards in his garden anymore. It is a win for everyone except the people who sell cheap plastic bins.
Very true. This has been a great deep dive. Thanks to Daniel for the prompt. It really struck a chord with our current patio situation. It is funny how a simple question about boots can lead to a whole philosophy on how we interact with the physical world.
Definitely. It is a topic that affects every part of our lives, from the shoes on our feet to the computers we use to record this show. It is about taking control of our environment instead of letting our environment dictate our spending.
Before we wrap up, I want to give a quick shout-out to our listeners. If you have been enjoying My Weird Prompts and you find these discussions helpful or interesting, please take a moment to leave us a review on your podcast app or on Spotify. It really does help the show reach more people who are interested in these kinds of deep dives. We are a small operation, and every review makes a difference.
Yeah, we appreciate all the feedback we get. It keeps us motivated to keep digging into these weird and wonderful topics. If you have a B I F L success story, or a "industrial" hack of your own, send it in! We would love to hear about the things that have lasted in your life.
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Thanks for joining us today. I am Corn.
And I am Herman Poppleberry.
We will see you next time on My Weird Prompts. Bye everyone!
Goodbye!
