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Comment by emodendroket | Hacker News Reader

I vacillate on this a lot. On one hand, yes, it's nice to have well-designed items that last decades or a lifetime. And obviously we're awash in disposable goods at great environmental cost. On the other, who hasn't been burned by buying a garment "for life" that no longer fits, no longer appeals to us, or otherwise gets rendered unusable? Or buying a beautiful, premium tool that only sees one or two uses? Or having an item that by all rights should have been disposable last for years of regular use?

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For the tool conundrum, I’ve found that the best course of action is to buy the cheapest option (within reason) to start with. If you don’t use it, no sweat, it was cheap. On the other hand, if you use it soo much that it breaks it you outgrow it then you get to buy the best version of that tool. At that point you know what you like and don’t like, as well as what’s worth paying extra for, so you end up with the perfect tool for you.

Yes, this is a commonly recommended strategy. But you do run the risk of being stuck with an unsatisfying but functional tool you feel guilty getting rid of, and even in the best case, who feels good about having bought a lousy tool that breaks?

I tend to go with a bit of a sliding scale based on factors like "how often do I expect to use it?" and "how afraid am I of it injuring me?"

On the other hand, you risk considering a whole tool class as not very useful, when actually it is just that the one you own is crap...

A better idea might just be to ask a neighbor to borrow their tool. Or subscribe to a tool library which may be near you.

This is a decent strategy and well-trotted in every buy-once thread but I'll offer my advice as someone who has been on this tool purchasing train for a few decades now. If you know the precision you require you can buy the tool you actually need. As an example if you are doing some leveling work over a 20ft by 20ft area you can figure out how well it can be done with an 8ft water level including disaster scenarios where you fuck it up and then you can consider a self-leveling laser and weight up your choices properly. Following the advice to get the cheapest tool will likely lead you into disaster scenarios because you end up with the entirely wrong class of tool.

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