WORSE ON PURPOSE

Corporate autopsies on the brands you trust. Who bought them, who gutted them, and what's still worth buying.

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INVESTIGATIONS

HVAC Got Worse On Purpose

Sep 30, 2026

Private equity bought the largest HVAC contractors. Their playbook pays technicians based on what they sell. Just six companies make most of the units they install.

Singer: The Downfall of a Great American Manufacturer

Sep 23, 2026

Singer, Husqvarna Viking and Pfaff are now one company. Only five sewing machine companies actually manufacture anything themselves.

Cheap To Mandate, Expensive To Own

Sep 2, 2026

On the compounding effects of safety and emissions regulations on car ownership. Today, simple new cars are illegal to sell and all models are more costly to keep.

Who Actually Makes Your Supplements?

Aug 26, 2026

Supplements are by far the most obfuscated category I have covered to date. Here's what you can do about it.

The Car Got Better. The Deal Got Worse.

Aug 12, 2026

The industry got so good at building cars that it stopped making its money on them.

Same Shoe, Different Factory

Jul 29, 2026

Only two major running brands still own their factories. The rest rent from the same pool of contractors. Many do so with no commitment past the current order.

Between Craft and Quality

Aug 19, 2026

Why it is so hard to prove that the new version is worse. By way of a five-hundred-year-old office for inspecting cloth, a fraud investigation from 1579, and a warning from Adam Smith.

On Independence

Aug 5, 2026

No sponsorships. No affiliate links. No outside money. The rules Worse on Purpose runs on, written in public, for readers to enforce.

On Quality

Jul 22, 2026

An ode to Pirsig: What quality is and how it is degraded.

FIELD GUIDES

Thread Count, Fill Power and Other Misleading Numbers

Oct 7, 2026

Selective marketing and increasingly complex products have made quality harder to judge. What five common numbers leave out, and what to check instead.

What Actually Voids Your Warranty?

Sep 16, 2026

The law has been on your side since 1975. What to do when a claim is denied anyway.

Reviews You Can Trust

Sep 9, 2026

How product reviews get bought, how to spot it in five minutes, and where I go instead.

WORSE ON PURPOSE

INVESTIGATIONS

HVAC Got Worse On Purpose

Singer: The Downfall of a Great American Manufacturer

Cheap To Mandate, Expensive To Own

Who Actually Makes Your Supplements?

The Car Got Better. The Deal Got Worse.

Same Shoe, Different Factory

PHILOSOPHY

Between Craft and Quality

On Independence

On Quality

FIELD GUIDES

Thread Count, Fill Power and Other Misleading Numbers

What Actually Voids Your Warranty?

Reviews You Can Trust

WORSE ON PURPOSE