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Turbulent-Army2631 t1_j3q0w6i wrote

I'm new to this sub. What's survivor's bias?

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[deleted] t1_j3q1hqq wrote

It’s a general term but on this sub it means look at this appliance from the 50’s that still works, while 99% of the same item have broken. Doesn’t make it a buy it for life item.

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_banana_phone t1_j3qvc3g wrote

Good point. It’s like how people say that about old cars, while neglecting the fact that a lot of old cars clunked out pretty quickly.

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sparkyjay23 t1_j3r0x1m wrote

I think the whole point with old cars is you can repair them. A car from the 60s is repairable by most garage mechanics. A car from today isn't.

The only buy it for life cars today are probably Rolls Royce & Ferrari, cost enough to be fixed regardless of the problem while they actively value their old cars.

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SloChild t1_j3q1o0l wrote

Thanks for the easy to understand explanation. That helps me, and I hope it helps others.

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BuddingFarmer t1_j3q1joo wrote

Imagine a company made 5000 cast iron pans. In that 5000,many had flaws but a few were near perfect and didn't break over the next 100 years. Only 5 of them still exist unbroken, but no one thinks about the broken ones. So when someone shows off their 100 year old pan, they say that new stuff isn't made to last 100 years anymore. However the truth is that 99.9% of those pans weren't made to last 100 years, they just got lucky with the one that survived.

That's survivorship bias.

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PuzzleheadedLow4687 t1_j3q20rr wrote

It's the same argument that goes "the Victorians built all their buildings to look really pretty and last 200 years". No, they built some of their buildings that way. All the crappy and ugly Victorian buildings have long since fallen down or been demolished.

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-Chris-V- t1_j3qqvud wrote

As someone who live in a very ugly impossible to heat house from the victorian era, I feel heard. It hasn't fallen down yet, but man it's on its way.

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Gnarlodious t1_j3qrgqr wrote

Paraphrasing, most antique cars are Ford Model A. Not because they were built so well or a great value, but rather because more were sold than any other. That’s why I will always recommend the Ford Model A as BIFL.

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Kall_Me_Kapkan t1_j3umyny wrote

Depends who made the pan, a rare Lodge is definately worth posting.

Electric mixers from the 50s covered in plastic is a piece of garbage though, don't care if it's the original robot coup.

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Dornith t1_j3raeqd wrote

Nothing anyone can explain here with do a better job than this image.

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Nobody_special1980 t1_j3q3uok wrote

It’s just another term used by “those” kind of people to bitch about something on the internet.

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xSympl OP t1_j3q4axw wrote

Lol '"those" kind of people' makes absolutely zero sense outside of an argumentative context. What could that POSSIBLY infer, especially for a rather common and documented phenomenon that's been a phrase for a while.

Seems like you're in here being angry just to be angry, you good?

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