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Comment by mensetmanusman | Hacker News Reader

I have been thinking about this but for new things.

It’s interesting to consider that almost everything we purchase can be improved immediately. Usually there are cost savings that result in sub-par properties.

Some random examples:

-Injection molded kitchen ware can’t easily have through holes to drain water during dishwashing. This can easily be fixed :)

-New windows don’t always have high quality silicone sealant at the interface between the window and the wood.One can add this to prevent condensation in the gaps (use blue tape to mask everywhere you don’t want the silicone)

-New clothes don’t have extra anti-stain materials near the collars, which is where they wear out firstly

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A couple of my favorite new item todos:

First thing I do with a trash can is drill some holes a few inches from the bottom. When the bag is full the holes will let in some air and make bag removal much easier. Keep the holes away from the bottom to reduce the risk of a broken bag leaking any spilled liquids.

The containers of salt I buy have the classic flip top aluminum pour spout. The tip of the spout can be bent away from the lid to aid in opening and reduce the risk of fingernail injury.

Those are both great tips! I bought a trash can (a Nordic brand) recently and it did have holes in the bottom. I actually noticed how easy it was to pull the bag out. No suction. In regard to salt, I recommend getting a salt pig! I just got one recently. If you cook a lot the ease of access is great.

there is something beautiful in the variety of ways a simple trashcan can be drilled and cut up; custom drain-holes must have so much variation; what’s the average volume of liquid garbage people are willing to tolerate before it overflows

Variation yes but I don't know about functional variation. I'd think the answers to liquid tolerance are either "no holes at all" or "holes at least 10cm up" with basically no need for any other categories.

You have liquid building up in your trashcan that high (ie ... ~10/2=5cm?).

Well I can't think of any reason to push it and cut really low. Give yourself a hand width and then go for the hole punch. That's only a few percent of the way up.

The point is, if you're trying to contain some amount of fluid, you cut pretty near but not entirely near the bottom. If you want a waterproof container, you don't cut at all. That's about it. Nobody's going to vary the location for functional reasons. And don't get too hung up on my example number.

> It’s interesting to consider that almost everything we purchase can be improved immediately. Usually there are cost savings that result in sub-par properties.

I think it's not just purchases, it's basically everything we ever come in contact with. See e.g. the fact that in software there seems to be a never ending set of long-hanging fruit tasks that can always be assigned to onboard new team members.

More generally there seems to be the great cycle of off-the-shelf -> customization -> full integration -> modularization -> off-the-shelf that affects everything and, given the time and energy, you can always move "forward" in this cycle.

A professor of mine once quipped that it's far quicker and cheaper to buy something similar to what you want, produced in consumer quantities, and then modify it.

Which was a different and useful way of looking at modern products: something new can still be "raw material."

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