BPO

I just learned a hideous new abbreviation: BPO, which stands for, in this case, “built-in planned obsolescence”.
Taste it. Companies plan for their products to become obsolete. And the sooner, the better. Engineers who design and build the products we buy have long since stopped trying to improve quality. Their current challenge is instead to design stuff that breaks after just so long. All for the sake of forcing us to continuously replace everything we own, at shorter and shorter intervals. You may have noticed this if you, for example, still have some gear from the 80’s. It’s friggin’ unbreakable, and there was a time when everything was unbreakable.
Not any more. Today, companies could make excellent quality but prefer to make stuff that breaks. On purpose! In the process, they waste energy, resources, and – most importantly – our money! Then they have the audacity to brag about their “impressive growth figures”. There should be an International Economic Criminal Court for these people. The IECC. An abbreviation I could get behind.

Happy for second place

Maybe I’m not competitive enough, but I sincerely hope Sweden’s Olympic triathlon coaches don’t made a stink over Lisa Nordén’s second place. There’s something distinctly unworthy about nagging your way to a gold medal.
Yes, it was a close finish, and you can debate forever which part of the body crossed the finish line first. But how would a overturned verdict feel for Nicola Spirig and the Swiss? What if someone took away a Swedish gold medal by bitching to the judges?
Just accept this and be happy for the silver medal. Please?

Klas working the market

I know businesses are in the business of doing business, but do they have to dip their willies absolutely everywhere?
In today’s Svenska Dagbladet, local Bombardier CEO Klas Wåhlberg (pictured) makes what he tries to pass off as a comment on the debate of Sweden’s delayed trains. In reality, however, it is just another pitch to sell more stuff.
This requires a bit of torturing. Remember, the problem is delayed trains, and Klas says that he and other suppliers must do their share to help them arrive on time. But when he gives examples of what he has in mind, it’s stuff such as this:
• A “power by the hour” scheme for selling operating hours
• Environmental design
• Safety
• Ergonomics
• Acoustics
In other words, nothing that helps trains arrive on time. However, and not surprisingly, it’s just the kind of stuff that helps Bombardier sell more trains.
Why take up debate space in a serious newspaper with this, Klas? Can’t you just buy an ad like everybody else?