is penultimate performance really necessary? I've been told that the motto at GE is "Good Enough". The customer does not pay more for exceeding needs or expectations.
Unfortunately, it is that very way of thinking that has resulted in increased costs and reduced quality of products. While the customer may not pay for doing something better than expected, the customer does expect value for money. If that is what GE goes by then all their saying is that they can do it, but wont and that giving the customer the bare minimum is okay. Problem with that mentality is that as the company relies on customer apathy, they will continually drop the standards and the quality while increasing the pricing and still be able to apply the same BS principle.
Anyway, aside from that about GE and similar companies, I believe it is all about personal expectations. If you don't expect a great deal then something that is not all singing and dancing is fine - if it meets your requirements. While I think accepting "good enough" is a little silly, I don't have a problem with it at all.
My way of thinking is different though. If there is something out there that is going to perform better than something else, why not get it? Why not exceed
our requirements to have something that maybe better and that may increase our enjoyment of our hobby?
Let me put it to you this way ... and I'll use Athearn as the example. They have 3 different "levels" of locomotives, base, intermediate and top of
their range. All of my Athearns are their Genesis Engines - the best that they make. I don't buy them because they are the best of what they have or to gloat or anything like that, I buy them because what they can do exceeds what I can do
now; however, I know that I have an engine that I can grow into as I learn more and not have to replace them to catch up with my experience and knowledge.
While I do agree that things made 50 years are far far better quality than anything made now a days, most of those things cannot compete with what is available now a days in terms of what those things can do.
In short, I don't and wont settle for second best as I see it - it really is that simple. That isn't to say that I have anything against anyone who doesn't share that thought process, as I don't. It is very much each to their own and what each of us finds acceptable based on our own expectations.