I stood in the middle of the living room holding a hose and I thought: I have owned vacuums my entire adult life and I have never once used a vacuum. This is an essay about entropy, I think.

I think you're underselling modern vacuums. Sure, a cordless stick doesn't work very well, but there's a lot of excellent canister and upright vacs made by names like Miele and Shark that have plenty of suction. Certainly not as much as your 750 watt monster, but I got the same sensation of using a new vacuum and seeing it pull up tons of dirt I didn't know was there with our latest Shark upright.

This is very thought provoking!I really enjoyed the section speaking on how many technological changes are framed as upgrades while being less effective. It’s also cool to DIY these projects and reintroduce this improved tech for such low cost.

I have been disgusted by the carpet in my rented spaces for years. I have a wool rug in my office that is impossible to keep clean with my stick vac. This brought back memories of carpet lines I haven't seen since childhood. I used to love laying on a freshly cleaned carpet, and now I cringe at the feeling. I had never really given it much thought, but would have assumed that I was the one that changed, not the technology.