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In the early 80s I started working as an EE Tech at a contract manufacturing company. My job was to take apart a new customer product and create the processes for the manufacturing floor to follow to build the products from scratch.

Early on I noticed some 'flaws' in the customer design - notably electronic components such as resistors and capacitors, occasionally undersized board traces that were sufficient for the job, but offered no longevity.

When I approached my EE and the manufacturing team I received a lesson in "Planned Obsolescence": The idea is to make product XXX so that the end user gets familiar with it, is comfortable with it and will recommend it and when product XXX fails they will want to replace it with the newer, improved version of XXX - the one with more bells, lights and whistles and more opportunity for PO.

Later on I moved to writing software and learned all about time bombs and programmed longevity based on cycles.

Nowadays I focus on repairing 'old' mechanical bits of automobiles from the 60s and early 70s - a world I am more comfortable with.