An age old design principle is Form Follows Function.  In other words when making something that is intended to be useful you should try to get the function right before designing the look of it.

Now of course some designers go for the "art" more than the function and that's all right as long as the consumer knows what they are getting.  It's quite obvious that a Porsche Design toaster isn't as functional as a ToastMaster but the ToastMaster can toast ANYTHING perfectly.  The Porsche Design one just LOOKS way more expensive (and is).

 

But what about when a company has a reputation for building products dedicated to function?  Wouldn't you expect anything that they turn out to follow the basic rule?

Predator has become a famous name in the billiard world.  They are everywhere, they sponsor everything, they are master marketers who manage to get their name on everyone and everything.  They revolutionized the pool world with their spliced shafts effectively creating another segment of the industry all by themselves.

And the shafts work as advertised – for the most part.  Of course SOME of the points are kind of marketingspeak for which no hard data to prove their claims has ever been shown.  But their shafts have indeed sparked a host of competitors and forced cue makers across the board to rethink the way they build cues.

So when this company brings out a case wouldn't you think it would be the ultimate in performance?  More efficient, lighter, stronger, more useful, most importantly more protective?

I would expect nothing less.  But the cases that they brought out a few years ago are complete opposites of that.  They are overbuilt monstrosities which are too big, too heavy, have weak closures which break easily, are not very protective and not very useful.

Harsh words.  Especially coming from the man who designed the first generation of Predator cases.  Am I bitter?  Not at all.  Right now my designs for mass production are the exclusive domain of Sterling Gaming.  At the moment Sterling and Predator don't get along too well and that can change.  It's entirely possible that I get the chance to design a new line for Predator at some point.

I understand how they ended up with what they have right now.  Someone at Predator drew up some cool looking designs and they shipped those designs off to the Long Chan factory and Long Chan had zero clue how to make those designs into real products in the correct way so they just kept layering material until they ended up with something that resembled the pictures they were sent.

And Predator, having no other choice and being already committed to a new line of cases (it was time as well) went forward with a product that is really not up to their standards.  To be fair the designs are appealing, they look pretty cool but the resulting product is crappy.  Now that's harsh I know, but it's the truth.  The sad part is that due to Predator's successful marketing now their new cases are also becoming some of the most copied, both as counterfeits and knockoffs of the general design.

Well anyway as it happens the other day I was out playing and I happened to put my case next to a Predator Blak 2×4.  At first I didn't notice the disparity but then after a shot I was standing next to the cases and I could see how much bigger the Predator 2×4 is than my JB Case 3×6.  It's taller (but does not handle more length), and bigger but does not have as much capacity.
 And it's WAY heavier. 

Here is a video comparing the two that I shot that day,

 

This is what we used to say in school when someone would start telling us intimate details we didn't want to hear.   Well it also means these days that we have an abundance of information coming at us in the "Information Age". 

A good example of this are forums and blogs (interesting ones unlike this one).  It's possible to start reading a forum and lose several hours and that doesn't include what happens if you actually participate.  Add blogs and news and Twitter and Facebook with their constant chatter coupled with instant messages, emails, text messages and even the constant "alerts" on your computers and devices and it's very easy to see that we are bombarded with "information". 

Many people are starting to revolt against this.  Recently I was banned from a forum, AZ Billiards for debating too strenuously to put it nicely.  I have a lot to say about just about everything but in particular subjects surrounding what I do.  So I can get really heated and long winded quickly.

The problem is that this turns into a huge time sucking endeavor that degrades the quality of my life and those around me.  And I am not alone.  When in the middle of one of these "debates" I found myself checking AZB constantly, every few minutes to see if someone "said something" – it was a horrible feeling.  I have never in my life been addicted to drugs but I imagine that it had to be something like that.   So being banned has been actually a good thing as I skim through AZ now and can't jump into topics with my opinion.  My wife is posting the cases we make for show and sell and I answer the questions she can't through her account.  Works great so far.  (She doesn't know anything about pool so she won't respond to anything negaitve and I won't ruin her fledgling reputation by jumping in under her name.)

It begins with thinking that what we have to say is important.  It's not.  Nothing I have to say is more important than living a quality life and taking care of business.  My opinion on China, leather, case quality and gasp, cue protection, is meaningless when giving it detracts from being useful to myself and those who are counting on me.

So I am withdrawing from the world and making myself less accessible and certainly (hopefully) more productive.  I get this idea from a great book called The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris.  The premise in this book is that we all have more than enough time to get our work done, in fact we have enough time to get more work done than we are getting done now.  The secret?  Being diligently and selectively withdrawn from the deluge of distractions.  Making yourself less available to every whim and everyone else's whims.  The promise in the book is that if you can do this then you can live a much happier life by living as if you are retired now.  Not really retired but that you can take more vacations and do all the things you have ever wanted to do while at the same time being more productive than you have ever been.

How many of you check your emails all the time?  How many of you go into withdrawals when AZ Billiards or your favorite forum is down for ten minutes?

Here is a story for you;

One time this young reporter went to interview an 85 year old farmer about his life.  They were into the conversation and the phone began to ring.  The old man made no move to answer it or even acknowledge that it was ringing.  The young reported couldn't stand it and asked the farmer if he was going to answer it.  The wise farmer replied, "Son, I put that phone in for my convenience."

So I think that we should all remember that the internet exists for us to use for our convenience not for everyone's else's convenience to reach us.  Don't allow yourself to be covered in "information".  Turn it off until you want it.  It's not going anywhere.

 

This pretty much sums up how we build cases.

From Go Comics