> makes one wonder how many other little details like this there are in daily life products that we'll never even know about
You notice the hard way when you try to build things yourself. All the small things that make mechanics go together ... like just getting the jiggle just right to make things not seize or be too loose.
The amount of institutional knowledge around is insane, and I fear that the quality drop in things in recent years is just not due to cheap imports, but also that employee employer loyalty is punished by the employers nowadays and they are losing experienced engineers. Like the "I'll be designing cupboard hatches here till I retire"-generation is retiring and the new engineers are job-hoping?
You notice the hard way when you try to build things yourself. All the small things that make mechanics go together ... like just getting the jiggle just right to make things not seize or be too loose.
The amount of institutional knowledge around is insane, and I fear that the quality drop in things in recent years is just not due to cheap imports, but also that employee employer loyalty is punished by the employers nowadays and they are losing experienced engineers. Like the "I'll be designing cupboard hatches here till I retire"-generation is retiring and the new engineers are job-hoping?