CLAIM THEORY

Think Deeper
(draft)

What is the BEST laundry detergent?

Todd Osgood makes these Project Farm videos on YouTube, where he reviews products in a logical and simple way.  He does a truly amazing job; he is always worth watching.

Nothing I'm about to say should reflect poorly on him, but you're reading this book to learn about deeper thinking, so we need both to zoom out for the big picture and zoom in to better understand what is 'BEST'

Rather, my analysis highlights the core flaw in most consumer testing: optimising for edge cases rather than average utility.

Testing frameworks often measure maximum performance under extreme stress - like motor oil or berry juice on white cotton - which distorts what 'BEST' means for everyday life.

YouTube Video - Project Farm - I Didn't Expect This! Cheap vs Expensive Laundry Detergent!

sent my wife the video, and after watching it concluded what BEST was.

She recapped what he had already said and gave me the top 3 options from his list.

This is what I find most people do.

But my reply to her explains this a little better:

'Best' is a function of price and how we actually use it

Keep in mind
 

• What we have works fine for our needs (whatever is cheapest)
• We should function 100% on price first
• Because we can always spot-scrub BAD stains when we need to, and even use other products
   

His test was for ALL stains and worst cases, all in one go
But most people don't need to deal with that

So most people are using too much (overkill) 99% of the time

Most people don't crawl under a car and change the oil
(as much as I respect everyone that does)
and even though I do, I have special clothes for that, and don't care about the stains

In other words, most people don't have the problems he is addressing here

So ultimately, just find the CHEAPEST, which is good enough

TAGS:  Utility, Optimisation, Edge Cases, Consumer Testing, Overkill, Sabre Metrics, Efficiency, Value, Critical Thinking