The "Brilliant" Idea that Saved The Economy and Killed The Future

In California, a light bulb has burned for over a century.

A few years ago, science journalist Derek Muller visited the light bulb after a friend told him we had the technology to make light bulbs last virtually forever. In fact, we’d had the technology for quite a long time. Light bulbs made in the early 1920s could work for decades. Then in 1924, the world’s top executives from Phillips, GE, Tokyo Electric, Associated Electric, and OSRAM held a secret meeting in Gevena, Switzerland to form the Phoebus Cartel. They told the public they wanted to standardize their bulb designs and increase efficiency in order to benefit consumers. That always seems to be the cover story, doesn’t it?

The plan they cooked up to drive profits inspired computer engineers decades later. Back in 1990, IBM started offering an economy version of its popular laser printer aimed at the average consumer. It sold well.

There was just one problem.

Just like the Phoebus Cartel wasn’t meeting to make better light bulbs, IBM actually hadn’t made a more affordable printer—not at all. They hadn’t found a way to streamline production. They hadn’t made a simpler device, or even a cheaper one. Instead, they came up with a plan that had its own profound influence on product design and advertising for generations to come. Of course, it amounted to a new spin on the same idea, originally born in the 1840s: How to get everyone to spend more money without offering them a better product.

Well, someone took apart IBM’s “economy printer” to find out how they’d managed to cut their costs. They figured out the secret.

Outrage ensued.