Two meanings of good

Two brothers in Qena are choosing a washing machine for their mother, and they have been arguing about it for a week.

One keeps saying they should buy a good one. The other agrees entirely, and still they cannot settle it. It takes them far too long to see why. To the first brother, good means it will not break, and that the repairman in town knows how to fix it when it does. To the second, good means the newest panel and the quietest spin. One word, two machines.

Marketing runs on words like this. Quality, premium, value, loyalty, brand. People can argue about them for an hour, nodding at the same word while picturing different things.

Value and cheap are different ideas. A premium price does not make a premium product. A customer who keeps buying because nothing else is stocked nearby is not the customer who would walk across town for you. Popular and loved are separate things, and so are known and trusted.

Each of those sounds like a quibble until money gets spent on the wrong half of it.

Most of these quarrels are not disagreements. They are two people using one word for two things, each sure the other is being difficult. The fix is unglamorous and nearly always skipped: before choosing anything, say out loud what you take the word to mean.

Once the brothers did that, the choice took about ten minutes.