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Comment by tshaddox | Hacker News Reader

Isn't the convenient version of something always worse in every way aside from convenience than the less convenient version of the same thing?

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With the caveat that the ways it's "worse" can easily be irrelevant compared to the convenience.

For instance, I buy way more shredded cheese than blocks. It removes an annoying step that creates a dirty utensil that isn't trivial to clean (grater). If I'm making 3 quesadillas a day for picky children to eat at different snack or mealtimes, I don't want to own 3 shredders, nor to have to carefully scrub the cheese off it 3x per day.

I haven't noticed any important difference in the cheese besides saving me like 15 minutes a day of fussing with cheese graters.

My parents bought pre-grated as well. It's a great option for someone with kids.

However, I would recommend grating a block for a couple days worth at a time and keeping it in the fridge in a food storage container. That way you don't need 3 shredders or to spend all your time cleaning shredders every time you want a quesadilla. An electric rotary shredder or a kitchen-aide attachment makes it trivial.

Also, try adding a little canned Red Enchilada sauce to your quesadilla or egg and cheese burritos. It's life changing!

> Also, try adding a little canned Red Enchilada sauce to your quesadilla

That's just an enchilada. They're good, but they're not quesadillas.

A hotdog is a sandwich?

No, a quesadilla in enchilada sauce is not different from an enchilada in any way, form factor or otherwise. A cheese enchilada is a fried tortilla filled with cheese and coated in enchilada sauce. By the time you've added enchilada sauce to a quesadilla, you've already completed the process of making an enchilada.

There is a podcast dedicated to such food related pedantry called "A Hotdog is a Sandwich." Pretty entertaining.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgcVfgkzo4oBgSdPCB0B2Cg

Would you really call it pedantry to object to someone saying "for an even better cheese pizza, try sprinkling pepperoni over the top"?

As a pedant myself, I would say yes!

> If I'm making 3 quesadillas a day for picky children to eat at different snack or mealtimes, I don't want to own 3 shredders

I make quesadillas in the microwave. You don't need to grate the cheese; slicing is just as good.

This assumes you're using corn tortillas; I assume flour tortillas don't microwave well.

Definitely not "always" and "in every way".

Random example. I buy a meal made by a professional chef and have it delivered. It's more convenient and it's a much better meal than I could make. It's more expensive, sure, but that's not 'in every way'

But within the same example its not as good as if you ate the exact same meal freshly served - things won't be as hot and certain textures will be lost in delivery (eg crispy things going soggy)

You mentioned a chef which is less specific but I generally consider restaurant food less healthy than what I'd cook for myself due to differing incentives which is another dimension for convenience

Indeed, but that's a different choice than the original. If leaving my house isn't an option for me, the subsequent options entailed are then off the table, so to speak. The OP said "always" and "in every way", and I was pointing out that there are many exceptions, depending on many factors.

That example actually underlines parents point. Because, yes, delivered food is convenient. However, at least in my experience, delivered food from a professional chef is always inferior to what I'd get if I actually visited the same restaurant. Yes, packaging has improved and fried stuff isn't as gross at it used to be, but it is still not the same level of quality compared to actually going there.

Yeah, if you break it down further into the set of all possible options, but it depends what my criteria/realistic choices are. If I'm not going to or can't leave my house, then the more convenient option is still the better one.

My exception was to the terms "always" and "in every way".

I dunno, to be pedantic, cheese is a convenient version of milk. I like both though.

Restaurants are usually better than home cooking. However, I have rarely found the more convenient option to be cheaper and it is usually worse. It's a bit of an iron triangle. Cheap, convenient, good.

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