Unpopular opinion: I’m disappointed we put so much effort into designing forks, cups, and spoons.
Are any of these things better in 2022 than they were in 1922 or in 1722?
Let’s pick a standard design for forks and only update it when we get new classes of materials or new manufacturing processes that require or enable a design tweak.
We complain about the amount of human ingenuity that gets sunk into ad click rates or tricking people with dark patterns.
What about the amount of human ingenuity that goes into redesigning a four-legged wooden kitchen chair that looks like a four-legged wooden kitchen chair, or a stainless steel fork that looks like a stainless steel fork.
Design in furniture and certain kinds of cutlery is better thought of as art, not industrial design - they are closely related to architecture in this way. Sure, the piece has to meet some basic engineering needs, but otherwise it's main focus is decorative, not functional.
You may not care how you kitchen chair looks, but I assure you the vast majority people do care, at least as much as they care how their T-shirt or pants look.
There is an immense variety in the 10-20$ range, with very little brand recognition or true transparency on quality or attributes. It is likely that new iterations repeat previous mistakes or regress.
What we need is to find a robust, simple, sustainable, long-lasting, repairable optimum that is truly environmental friendly and is produced ethically, and then, as you suggest, focus human ingenuity on something else. This will not happen in the current economic system, but will require some kind of intervention or crisis.
By the way, if you're looking for the perfect fork, may I recommend the MSR Alpine tool fork? I bought it out of curiosity about reading an article about how it was designed. Was skeptical at first, but it does have great mouth-feel as well as a couple of other neat quality-of-life things. I use it for daily (non-camping) use btw.
My wife just found an amazing set in Thailand that not only look unique and cool, but in fact have important new features. The dinner knives are sharp enough to cut steak. The handles weigh enough that you can satisfied suspend the ends off the table, which means they handle brilliantly.
Are any of these things better in 2022 than they were in 1922 or in 1722?
Let’s pick a standard design for forks and only update it when we get new classes of materials or new manufacturing processes that require or enable a design tweak.
We complain about the amount of human ingenuity that gets sunk into ad click rates or tricking people with dark patterns.
What about the amount of human ingenuity that goes into redesigning a four-legged wooden kitchen chair that looks like a four-legged wooden kitchen chair, or a stainless steel fork that looks like a stainless steel fork.