Many other ordinary household products that have been with us for generations are also beyond most people’s abilities to evaluate.  Decades ago, a simple pot morphed into Corningware—but what, exactly, was that? More recently, it’s been supplanted by stoneware.  Do most people have any better idea what this is?

Even buying something as simple as bedsheets can confound us today. Recently, I went shopping for some, and found a wonderful-feeling variety made of microfiber.  For me, the term had vague associations with modern athletic wear that can keep you comfortable by wicking perspiration away from your body.  When I put the sheets on my bed, though, I found them way too hot to be usable.  It was only then that I found out that microfiber is just another term for polyester—widely known to trap heat.  The manufacturers were able to fool me merely by changing its name.

If we’re unable to reasonably evaluate simple, humdrum items such as these, what would happen if we came across, say, a laptop computer with a dramatically lower price, made by a company we’d never heard of, which had an operating system other than Microsoft’s Windows or Apple’s macOS?  Would any prudent person without a PhD in electrical engineering even consider buying such a device?  And given this, what established retailer would be willing to stock it for sale?