Excellent post. I can feel the passion for what you do which is great. To be fair to Ingvar, IKEA actually delivers on its promises. The furniture looks good, but won’t last a log time, but at least its cheap. If you are happy engaging with their furniture on this baisis then ikea is fit for purpose (“fit for purpose” being one definition of quality).

I’m not sure that we in the software industry fair as well though. How many people who commission software anticipate that they will end up paying for a complete re-wrie in six to 18 months? Yet this is a common experience. The difference is that IKEA customers now what they are getting, in the most part software customers don’t.

Having said all this, I needed a sofa for an apartment that I am renting on a short term lease. So I decided that the best option would be to buy something cheap and cheerful from IKEA until I got around to buying my Condo. What happened? Well, I just couldn’t bring do it. I spent several days walking around IKEA and in the end I just couldn’t look beyond the poor craftsmanship, the cheap look and the lack of quality (in my eyes).

So here I am writing this comment on an office chair, still without a sofa. But at least my choice is congruent with I am, and I’m happy

Paul.