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Comment by dkarapetyan | Hacker News Reader

It doesn't bother me that people want to make certain things convenient what bothers me is the commoditization of every last thing in our consumer driven culture. Is your life really going to be so much better if you can make your coffee in 1 minute instead of 2 minutes? I really don't see any other convenience with ready-made coffee other than the time component. If that convenience comes at the cost of locked down devices for making coffee then it is really short-sighted of people to buy into that "convenience".

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In a workplace environment with a shared kitchen it absolutely is worth it to an average manager to avoid the spills and mess of grounds and keep everything in the pods. This is where I saw most Keurigs first, and then it seemed to "hijack" its way into the household because people got addicted to the convenience that they enjoyed at the office.

Where I work there is a machine that dispenses coffee (Americano: basically an espresso plus piping hot water to fill the cup up). Such machines are more expensive than the typical office Keurig, but for an office of any size not prohibitively so. For office coffee it's actually quite good, and far and away better than any swill out of a Keurig I've ever had the misfortune of drinking.

> Is your life really going to be so much better if you can make your coffee in 1 minute instead of 2 minutes?

No. But if I have fifty things to do every day, one of which is making coffee, and I can shave a minute or two off of each one, I've saved lots of time.

> what bothers me is the commoditization of every last thing in our consumer driven culture.

A guy picking coffee beans could say the same thing about your pre-roasted pre-ground holier-than-Kuerig choice.

If you have 50 things to do in a day then coffee is the least of your worries. I also don't understand this really weird optimization mindset that some people have and that they apply to every single activity in their life. Some of my greatest insights have happened while I was just daydreaming or in general just doing nothing. Sometimes people should really stop and smell the roses.

> If you have 50 things to do in a day then coffee is the least of your worries.

It seems like people who do 50 things in a day are those most in need of mild stimulants.

I hear you, I really do.

Most of the coffee I drink is $5 a cup local artisan-roasted pour over. But I can't tell you how many times popping a pod in the Kuerig as I rushed out the door saved me - and gave me the time to smell other-than-coffee roses.

It's presumptuous to pick one thing you like taking the time to do and accuse those who choose to do other things slowly of not doing anything slowly.

For most people, Kuerigs aren't destroying mindfulness or presence, either by force or as one of a thousand cuts.

I can appreciate a quick coffee, but around here most people just use instant for that use-case. Some people seem to prefer the taste of the pods, but I don't find it much different. Instant is considerably cheaper, and also keeps from adding the clutter of a coffee-specific gadget to the kitchen.

> If you have 50 things to do in a day then coffee is the least of your worries.

Right, and the person getting upset at the very idea of a one-button coffee machine is the one worrying about coffee, not person who has already purchased and is happily using the one-button coffee machine.

Sometimes people should really stop and smell the roses.

And the less time I have to spend preparing my coffee, the more time have to sit with my coffee and do just that.

You're missing the point. Coffee is the roses in this case.

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