Posted by
GoldHorde on Saturday, February 09, 2008 12:06:41 AM
Efficient = Purposely Defective Engineering
When did the term ‘”efficient” come to mean failure to work or even failure to work well? The word efficient used to be 100% synonymous with a flawlessly successful operation; usually of an appliance, motor, vehicle or tool. Now when the hardware or appliance clerk tells me the model I am looking at is the most efficient – I immediately and instinctively ask, “Can you point out the inefficient one?”
Efficient air conditioners means the air is on but you still are sweating bullets. Efficient furnace means the heat is on but you are still chilled to the bone. Efficient toilet means you have to flush 3 times instead of once. Efficient refrigerator means your ice cream is now dripping soft serve. Efficient light bulb means you now need 3 lamps turned on to find your glasses. Efficient water heater means cool showers. Efficient washing machine means dirty clothes.
The new redefinition of the word ‘efficient’ can be expanded to the absurd; an efficient book would be only half the pages but totally unreadable in 2 point type. “But I can’t read it! (small type)” you’d argue – but only to the unapologetic retort of activists announcing “But it is efficient! (less natural resources)”.
So then I must ask the obvious logic - WHERE is the efficiency if it fails at its PRIMARY task? I grew up understanding the term “efficiency” in the full context of the phrase, “German efficiency”. It meant that an item was probably ugly, unsightly, barren or, at best, unique or interesting – but, by damn – it worked exactly as one would expect it to work; heater heated, air conditioners cooled and toilets flushed so perfectly – you took it 100% for granted and never looked back. Efficiency meant “Function over Form”…and it meant it to the nth degree.
It has come to the point where I would proudly leave any store with a large box bearing bright red lettering spelling out the horror of “100% Inefficient”! I guarantee that all men over 45 passing by would nod, smiling in understanding approval – knowing that I have obviously purchased one of the few “working models”. Somehow in a complete definition overturn, inefficient means the item works successfully as to its designed task. What kind of a poop-side-down world is this?
When I tell a typical activist this opinion – they respond with instantly harsh condemnation that I don’t NEED it that [fill in the blank]! You know the words to fill in here – I don’t need it that: hot; cold; fast; bright; big; good; etc. Of course, they have agreed with my point by saying so - noting that the product doesn't perform the work it was intended to do – it just does it “good enough”; a level of service and operation that was designed by comittee to an arbitrarily determined point…voted on by the legal bodies.
So there we have it: efficient means: works good enough; to a level of performance determined by the State or Federal legislative bodies, lawyers, lobbyists and activists. Engineers, and more importantly, CONSUMERS...need not be present.
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Next month: An overview in the redefinition of the word organic; now used prolifically in market produce booths and modern grocery aisles right alongside other items previously known as “organic” for thousands of years…until recent legal and politically motivated redefinitions stripped them of their title – what shall we call the old organics?
Respond now with your new definition and bio-engineering reasoning/rationale for 'non-organic organics'!