On Quality

From Daring Fireball

Most people, I suspect, can tell the difference between a $500 bicycle and a $1000 bicycle – most don’t think the differences are worth the extra money, but they can perceive the differences (lighter-weight frames, visibly superior components, etc.). I doubt, though, that most non-expert-cyclists are able to distinguish between, say, a $1000 bike and a $5000 bike. This holds true for many realms; it’s generally pretty easy for most people to perceive the difference between the mediocre and the good, but it often requires expertise or finely-honed sensibility to perceive the difference between the good and the great.

It’s actually part of an article on the virtues of the Macintosh OS, -but it’s a rather perfect justification of the design industry as a whole…