Why do you think, for example, the technical expertise required to manufacture a complex, safe, reliable transportation machine doesn’t ever get this title? How have we managed to have a lot of DIY ability, and home-spun gadgetry in the world, but the vast majority of vehicles on the road or products on the shelves aren’t derived from such sources. Most of what actually works, however it does, isn’t cooked up in a backyard workshop. It is true that at one time the systems and technology were simple enough that modifications were possible to execute by a wide segment of the population. Similar things can be said about personal computers.

Invariably, though, the demand for safety, reliability, consistency, and just a general “trustworthiness” seems to overshadow any deep desire to fiddle with things or take a gamble on the craftsmanship of a mostly mechanically “un-inclined” entrepreneur who thinks he’s a genius with the next best thing since the wheel (or sliced bread). Of course, a new experimental product, put together by a person with little experience, can lead to an enormous new frontier of tools. Take the Wright brothers’ inventions, as just one such example. However, it should be noted that although they made something that could fly, it took enormous capital investment from the government and the formation of bigger companies to make something that could fly well, and do other things in addition.

It is possible to generate, say with vaporizers and vape mods, a kind of robust set of engineering standards and safety guidelines, and quality assurances. But, I still find that one has too look pretty close at the finer points of most things to understand why it is that a whole device can be 50 + dollars from a big established manufacturer bent on avoiding safety-related lawsuits, and those $200 (no joke) lathed pieces of metal that merely hold a battery in style. The costs and price points vary widely, and I believe it is easy enough to demonstrate value in a variety of applications and devices. Just because something is a big brand product doesn’t make it inferior any more than just because something not being a big brand product means it is.

Sweeping assessments, found ALL OVER the vaping discussions, about “crap” and “gold” are passed off as just that: sweeping assessments. They remind me of the old 1337 (Leet speak) of the early internet days which hashed and rehashed all kinds of things from a position of armchair buffoonery that supported all kinds of nonsense that (thankfully) is gone from our consciousness. Granted, their endless trolling (because that’s what it was) did help us to question blind faith, but it also helped us ignore more true criticisms. Just because it’s nay-saying doesn’t mean it’s more valuable than a positive opinion. Just because it picks on things with senseless technical jargon doesn’t mean it’s actually saying anything valuable. Just a thought. Having worked, like a lot of people, in a technical field, it becomes clear who needs to sound tough by saying nothing useful, and who actually knows enough to support things that work. The most deficient folks in the IT fields are those that often gave glowing diatribes about obscure garbage that didn’t work at all and concepts that were convoluted and expensive and difficult to support. Their reasons? Just because… that’s why! And, for all of their supposed technical “genius” they were merely loaded for bear with dogmatic impulses, and were truly 100 times more irrational and defensive than those professionals that had developed working systems.

So, consider not just sources, but the source’s attitudes and motivation. Cynical elitism is boring, mostly because it’s useless to everyone but the person using it to feel better about having no love or purpose.

–Edited by VapeSnoop 5/3 removing “Linux” from a statement about “obscure garbage”. Staff writer has been given a harsh talking to!