Good, Fast and Cheap- the Venn Diagram of Choice

Introduction

In today’s world, any product or commodity can be summarised by this Venn diagram, and its very centre has become the mythological holy grail — a fantastical ideal just out of reach. There are three options we must choose between: if we’re lucky, we might get two, and in most cases, we get one. These traits we are forced to pick between determine speed, price and the quality of the product or service. Each trait has two sides. Speed is either quick or slow, price is either expensive or cheap, and the quality is either high or low. Ideally, and for most of us, we want it to be good, fast and cheap. As we’ve come to see, however, we can have two at the most. This forces not only consumers but companies as well to prioritise and choose which traits are more important.

We live in a money-hungry world, and with flimsy ideals of constant economic growth, the thing I find most often to be neglected out of the three is quality. To meet the market demand and impatience, products and services are prioritising speed, and to be able to reach and be affordable for most people, the price is ensured to be as low as possible - driving the need to lower production costs, which leads to lower wages, leading to more demand for cheap products. In a race to be the cheapest quality is thrown out the window or left out completely. After all low quality is good for business as well, especially if your product needs to be replaced constantly because of its quality. We see this all the time and the most famous example is light bulbs, which are purposefully engineered to break, leading to a higher consumption of light bulbs. After all, what is more financially sound? Have a customer pay a high price one time or low prices for a lifetime? But of course, the market is largely driven by consumers and customers as well. 

This blog post will delve deeper into each of these three traits: the quality, the speed and the price. We will explore each section in depth and hopefully answer the question of why we have to choose and pick between them - hopefully leading us to make better and more informed decisions. In an ideal world, we would, of course, have all three, but as we’re forced to often choose between two, what should we prioritise? We’ll look into each and discuss the pros and cons and what we can do as individuals to help negate some downsides. Let’s begin by looking at the first of the three: the quality. 

The Quality

The quality of goods is determined by factors like durability, sustainability and impact. The definition of quality, of course, depends on what kind of product or service it is we’re referring to. When we talk about clothes, we often think about comfort and durability above other things, while when we talk about the quality of food, we think about things like flavour, nutritional value and so on. Determining the quality of something takes knowledge and experience, and if you’re not conversant with the product or service, it can be hard to tell what is high quality and what is low quality. Some things are more obvious - like if the shoes you bought break the next day, you can safely assume they’re made from low-quality material. This can be tricky, and it’s often important to determine the quality of an item before paying for it. We trust that people and companies are honest and that they’re held to some sort of standard, yet this trust is broken over and over, and on a daily basis, companies and manufacturers get away with low-quality production. 

When testing different clothing textiles and materials constantly, the labels turn out to be false, or traces of dangerous chemicals and other materials are found. Then, the consumer is no longer able to trust what the packaging says and instead must develop their sense and skill to determine between qualities. The feel of cotton is unique, and even if the label says 100% cotton if it doesn’t feel like cotton specifically does, then odds are it’s probably mixed with another material like polyester. The reason for this kind of cheating is, of course, to save money. They can’t reach the trinity of cheap, good quality, fast and cheap, so instead, they opt to lie about the quality. These kinds of quality shortcuts are everywhere, and it’s not only in the clothing industry you have to watch out for.  

The food industry is much the same, and here, there’s a skewed view of quality being determined visually. Plants are bred and over-fertilised to create massive and good-looking produce but often end up being watery and tasteless. Not to mention the decline in nutritional value we’ve seen. Here, unfortunately, the determination is often up to trial and error. With research and experimentation, you can come to understand what is good for you and what isn’t - but we can’t entirely trust ourselves. We might get a dopamine hit from unhealthy food - so does our instant gratification from the sugar hit mean the food is high quality? Diet can be especially difficult for us to determine, we have to reflect and experiment and see how we feel after eating it. Following the tips of dieticians and big companies can make this process confusing and uncertain, as what works for one person might not work for another. Most of these people and businesses also have a goal to sell us something. It might be an idea or a product, and they will all want to convince us that what they’re selling is high quality. 

To truly determine quality, we must educate ourselves and reflect, but why should we want something high in quality? What is wrong with low quality? It might seem obvious - high quality is almost unanimously agreed to be something positive, and of course, we should strive for that. High quality is associated with positivity and longevity, almost regardless of what it’s about. We want our relationships and even our lives to be of high quality. The problem when it comes to quality is often the two others: price and speed. We only ever compromise on quality because of these other two, and it’s the same reasons companies also produce low-quality products. This is what makes the quality the most difficult trait to offset the negatives and would be the one I try to prioritise the most. If you have the money and or the time, high quality will always pay off in the long run. You might get away with low quality for a short time, but it doesn’t last. Almost any kind of product or service is worth more being higher quality - we just have to ensure it’s worth the time and price. A high-quality diamond might be worth more than a low-quality sandwich - but if you’re stuck in a hole with no food, most people will choose the sandwich. It’s important to remember this when people pick low quality; it’s more often than not out of necessity rather than by choice. Sometimes, we choose low quality if we need it there and then. 

The Speed

We as humans tend to be impatient, this is largely a survival mechanism. In a world of survival, tomorrow doesn’t exist; you’re in the here and now. This is true in the way of conscious operation by most living things on our planet. We choose the immediate because tomorrow is never guaranteed. A person’s ability to plan ahead and feel positive towards the future determines whether they’re thriving or surviving. Somebody who is in survival mode chooses the immediate and can often disregard future consequences because of it. Because of this, speed is something very important to most of us, and it makes sense, right? If we’re hungry, we want something immediately to satisfy that craving - which is why fast food is so important. If winter is coming and our shoes are broken, we don’t want to walk barefoot for a week we want new shoes immediately. Our lives haven’t always been like this, but the drive to have something as fast as possible has always existed within us. Having something as fast as possible is proof in some way of safety and security. We don’t have to worry about our crops surviving to harvest season because we know the closest grocery store will be filled tomorrow as well. Whether this sense of security is naive or false is up to you, but this drive towards speed is found everywhere. 

When choosing a service and product, speed almost always plays an important role in decision-making. We can see it in the sales of lottery tickets and the popularity of get-rich-quick schemes floating about. People would rather have the chance of having a lot of money right here and right now than the guarantee of having it by saving up for several years. This, as stated, is because of our survival instincts, tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. What use is it to plan ahead and save for it when we can live for today? Sometimes, we can’t compromise on time, and it often becomes apparent when it comes to services. If the water piping in your house breaks, most people will prioritise the speed at which it’s fixed rather than the quality and price of the job. With the right practices and planning, we can offset the negatives and make sure that we don’t compromise on quality and price because of our need to have things immediately.  

To offset the negatives, we can develop patience, plan ahead and control our impulses. We can Instead of eating out every day, prepare meals for the week. This ensures we eat good quality food for an affordable price. It takes time to cook food, so it requires the correct planning. If we can abstain from impulse shopping, we can dedicate time to researching the product, helping us determine good quality and price. By moving from our survival instincts into a higher perception and practising slow living, we can ensure an affordable and high-quality life that doesn’t compromise on either for instant gratification. There are so many things in life that take time, and rushing things often only leads to low quality and or losing money. It can’t be stressed enough how much of our problems can be resolved simply by patience; it truly is a virtue. Of course, it doesn’t solve everything, and some things have to be done with haste and speed, but figuring out what needs to be immediate and what doesn’t - is helpful in so many areas of life. Ask yourself which of these three traits is the most important to you - would you rather live a slow but rich and high-quality life, or is speed what truly matters to you? Where are you rushing to? We’re all going to the same place, and that’s the price for life.

The Price

You get what you pay for is a common idea, and this can lead to the false belief that something is automatically higher quality or better because it’s more expensive. This isn’t necessarily true, but rarely, if ever, is something really high quality going to be cheap. The price is one of the most important points out of these three - and for obvious reasons. The price is what determines availability in this world. If the price is too high, it’s simply out of reach for some people. This, paired with the survival instincts mentioned in the previous part about time, leads to the idea that poverty is a low-quality life. Because in poverty, you are in survival mode, and high quality is often out of reach for you because of the price. While this isn’t the only determining factor for the quality of life we experience, our economy indeed plays a big part in our choice of product or service. This trait is only a bit awkward because it’s only ever a problem because of your personal economy. If you have a lot of money, you can have high-quality goods and services at a great speed, but with a tighter budget, you are a lot more restricted in choice, and a lot of people don’t have much choice in the matter. 

There are things we can do, and if we can compromise on time, we can still assure high quality at an affordable price. There are a lot of steps we can take when it comes to price, but only if we have the ability to do so. Some people don’t, and there’s no judgment in that. However, there are things we can do to mitigate our economic restrictions, and getting creative with it is a great way to ensure high quality while working with a tighter budget. While we don’t always have the options we might want, sometimes our restrictions are also self-imposed, and we are, in the end, the ones who decide where and how we spend our money. 

To tackle the cons, budget and look over your personal economy. I think it’s worth paying more for something higher quality as it will probably save you money in the long run. Paying for proper and good food will help your health and potentially offset the need to spend money on your health. Learn to prioritise what is more important, as a consumer, this is one of the few times you can change the market - where and how you spend your money is what dictates the landscape of transactions. Look over your personal spending and your own needs. Most of us live in worlds of overconsumption, where we buy and get more than we need, and a lot of it goes to waste because of it. On average, in the world, a piece of clothing is worn about 120 times - that’s a jacket that sees the sunlight less than a third of a year. This number is also drastically dropping each year, and it’s only because of how cheap and available clothing is. Ask yourself what’s more important to you: a lot of clothing for cheap that you can wear a few times or one piece of clothing you love that lasts you for years? We often don’t think long-term when shopping - we instinctively think we’re making a good decision if we get a product for cheap, thinking we’ve been smart and saved money. However, in doing so, we often compromise on quality or other things. It’s worth taking the time to reflect and analyse and to spend our money wisely.  

Final Words

The holy grail - the commodity or service with all three is an expert working for themselves or loved ones where there’s no financial drive. To make something high-quality takes practice and understanding - an understanding that only comes with wisdom, and to make or do it quickly requires the same. An expert in anything - whether crafts or work can produce high quality and quickly, and if they know their worth, they won’t usually do it for free. Most of us, however, will have to compromise on one of the three as we can’t be experts on everything, and even as handymen or craftsmen, we are limited to the quality of the material we work with. Take the time to reflect and put your priorities straight, consider what you really value and what you need. Don’t be deluded by the marketing that you can have all three at once, be realistic and be smart about it. 

It’s a tough choice but a choice you have to make almost on a daily basis. You might not care about it, even believe that it doesn’t really affect you, but it does. It affects every aspect of your life, and what you choose and prioritise comes to shape your very existence. What you put your focus on and what you do defines so many other parts of your life. Take the time to learn and differentiate between high-quality and low-quality. Practice patience, but develop your skills so you can do things quickly without compromising the quality. Don’t rush, but do it quickly. Take a lot of your spending and put it towards things that have meaning to you, things that bring you joy and happiness, genuinely and not some short-lived gratification that ultimately leaves you unsatisfied. Hold manufacturers and producers accountable, and if you’re one yourself - be honest and work towards betterment. All three traits might be rare, but we can make them more common through a joint effort towards improvement - they’re all important for their own reasons, and there’s no judgment in what you choose, but don’t let inertion take over. Move up and move towards a better world, dare to grow. Choose wisely, and don’t be afraid to change if it doesn’t work, hold steadfast in your beliefs and morals. Don’t compromise on what matters to you. Figure out what’s really important to you and let that decision lead you in all your choices when you buy products or services. Hold yourself and the market accountable.

Most importantly, remember that change comes from within. Be the change you want to see.