It's very hard to stop shopping, and if you don't stop, you lose. There's a fantastic SF story that is the perfect allegory (Arthur C. Clarke, Superiority):
EDIT: It angers me that this comment was down-voted. That story was difficult to find, and it really is the perfect allegory to the OP's problem, and the more general "worse is better" notion. What is this, some sort of prejudice against Golden Age SF as a cultural touchstone? Would I be similarly penalized if I mentioned "Sisyphus" or a "Gordian Knot"?
I have loved that story ever since I read it as a teenager. Incidentally, it is an almost perfect metaphor for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the "jet that ate the Pentagon".
It's very hard to stop shopping, and if you don't stop, you lose. There's a fantastic SF story that is the perfect allegory (Arthur C. Clarke, Superiority):
http://www.mayofamily.com/RLM/txt_Clarke_Superiority.html
EDIT: It angers me that this comment was down-voted. That story was difficult to find, and it really is the perfect allegory to the OP's problem, and the more general "worse is better" notion. What is this, some sort of prejudice against Golden Age SF as a cultural touchstone? Would I be similarly penalized if I mentioned "Sisyphus" or a "Gordian Knot"?