On Commercial Products

Let's discuss commercial products in general. Let's take a hamburger.

What's a good example of a commercial hamburger? The Big Mac. It's designed to look pretty good and taste pretty good. It's designed to be easy and fast to eat. It's designed to be as widely appealing to as many people as possible. When you make something as widely appealling to as many people as possible though, there's going to be some people who's tastes are left out. You can't order a Big Mac rare, for example. And it'd probably be kind of disgusting if you were able to get one rare.

What's a good example of a noncommercial burger? That'd be the burger my Dad makes on the weekends on the BBQ. He's pretty serious about it. He buys the best hamburger he can, he works minced garlic into the meat. He serves it on a potato roll with a side of slaw. Is it a hamburger? Yes, and it's delicious. Does it taste better than a Big Mac? I don't know, maybe, they both taste pretty good. If given a choice I'd take my Dad's, because he's my Dad and I know he loves to grill out, while the President of McDonald's, I don't really care how he feels and I don't think he much cares about me, once my money has been spent. Would everyone love my Dad's burgers? If you don't love very rare, seared meat and garlic, probably not. But he knows I personally like them that way, so that's how he makes 'em.

What would I do if one day my Dad asked me to give him $2.99 for one of his hamburgers? I'd probably laugh at him. Because that's what it'd be, a joke.

There's a difference between commercial products and things made for the joy of making them. Which one is better? Doesn't matter because in the end they have almost nothing in common except that they're both called "hamburgers" and work on the same base idea of placing meat between bread.