there's a cast iron pan in my kitchen that's been there for eleven years. i didn't buy it. it came with the apartment before that, and the person who left it didn't want it back.
i've never seasoned it correctly. i've burned things in it. i've left it wet once or twice. it doesn't care. it just keeps working.
i think about that pan when i see the stuff we make at the wares. not because we're trying to make cast iron pans — we're not — but because the goal is the same. make something that doesn't need to be improved. make something that just works, keeps working, and gets better the more you use it.
there's a pressure in product culture to iterate. to version. to add features. to respond to feedback with changes. and sometimes that's right. but sometimes the thing is already done and the pressure to improve it is just noise.
the stuff i've seen come out of the maker side lately has that quality. things that feel finished. not because they're perfect but because they're complete. there's a difference.
a thing that's complete doesn't need your help. it just needs to be used.
i'm not against improvement. i'm against improvement as a default. sometimes the answer is: this is already what it is. leave it alone.
the pan is still in my kitchen. i'm not going to replace it.