Sometimes, quantity over quality is more appealing — especially with good things. It’s better to have more of a good thing in excess than too little (unlike William Shakespeare claimed). With society focusing more on quality over quantity, it’s vital to understand the other side of the coin: to look at the benefits that come from having more of something.
The quantity over quality meaning is a blurry one. It’s common to think that the quantity part means to have more of something of lesser worth until it matches the value of a quality thing — this isn’t always the case. The difference of quality and quantity is visible and easy to tell. The time we spend with our families can be seen as more of a quantity thing, while presents given to them are more on the quality side.
When it comes to quality versus quantity, it usually depends on the situation at hand. Sometimes, it’s better to choose more rather than less. To the rescue comes Amygdala5822, who asked an interesting question on Askreddit — “When is quantity better than quality?” With so many answers given, we have compiled the best ones below. If you think the given quantity over quality examples are good — upvote them. Otherwise, if you have another example, be sure to share it with a comment below.
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"Toilet paper. No matter how good it is, if there's not enough, it's bad."
Even the sandpaper they sell under the name 'recycled paper ' is better than no paper
"Spending time with your kids. Your kids don't care that you took them to France for two weeks, if you're not around the rest of the year. It's much more important to be present, and to be a part of their daily routines.
When I say "spending time", I mean interacting with them. Not just occupying the same room and being inattentive. Also, yes, I get it, if they spend all day beating you, then it's not great. I'd like to think I didn't have to be explicit about that."
"Puppies, a good puppy is great, but being covered in a swarm of them is heavenly."
RaeSor said:
"Presence over presents."
20mcfadenr replied:
"Completely agree... if parents buy everything the kid wants but never spends time with them they aren’t good parents"
Presence wins every time! There are so many parents who don't even realize how they neglect their children, because they shower them with worldly possessions
"Happiness. I’d rather have more people happy than fewer people with more happiness."
"Dollars. I'll take one million even if they are in barely acceptable condition."
xghoulishmiragex said:
"Guitar picks. It doesn't matter if you have a crappy hand-me-down one or a fancy collector's one, you're going to lose it one way or another."
Dackelwackel replied:
"I met a guitar player a few weeks ago who mentioned that she has the same pick since, dunno, 15 years or so. It's a tear drop-shaped one, which was pretty expensive, as she said."
N0_Tr3bbl3 replied:
"I have one that's 20 years old. I haven't been using it that long, it just got lost for 19 1/2 years."
I think the longest I've managed to keep a pick is about 5 years. I buy them in bags of 50 now haha
"A few years back, my mom ordered an amazon Alexa from a eBay. Rather than ordering it from amazon like anyone else would've, she decided to be stubborn and order again when 2 weeks passed and no delivery. 2 weeks became a month, and at this point my mother had ordered about a dozen of these Alexas in Joes of one showing up finally. This was in early march 2016. She eventually forgot about it. Then august 2017 happened. I walk downstairs in the morning to see her complaining about getting 17 knockoff Chinese Alexas that talk in a very unsettling voice. She tries to return them but has no success there, so finally giving into defeat, she gives them to me since no one else would want them. They really can't do much on their own, but once i discovered that they will repeat any phrase you tell them to, I would put them all within close vicinity, and this is where the fun began. I would say "Alexa, say Alexa", and then out them on full volume. After about 30 seconds the only audible noise within my household was a domino effect of knockoff Alexas reciting the command which triggered their surrounding comrades. I can also Bluetooth connect them to all play songs from my phone. They are not consistent with their timing so the songs come out as the un God-forsaken sounds of satan being b***-forked dry in a wind tunnel. I love my dysfunctional Alexas. All 17 of them."
-eDgAR- said:
"Water when you're fighting a fire. Can't put out a burning building with a bottle of Fiji water."
z_utahu re replied:
"Firefighters often use wetted water because it works better."
aliennick4812 replied:
"It's basically like soapy water, reduces the surface tension so it can creep into smaller surfaces regular water wouldnt reach. Dried water is what they send up to the ISS to save weight."
frederick0o said:
"Points in any match. Doesn't matter how you scored, a point's a point."
sakibug replied:
"Unless you're a contestant on whose line is it anyway because the points don't matter."
Do exams count? When I was in highschool, the teacher thought I was cheating on an exam. I got it right though? A win's a win! (didn't cheat, failed me anyways.)
ZuMelon said:
"Hair ties and bobby pins because you lose them anyway."
puffpastry2001 replied:
"I can't agree more. In my household, there's also the possibility that our cat has stolen them. I'd rather have extra over needing to wrestle the cat for something I paid way too much for."
"Pens and pencils. I swear I lose them all the time. Why waste money on one good pen I'll lose when I can buy a lot of sh***y ones and feel better when I lose them."
"Edible food. For some people at least."
"Creativity. The more you do, the better you get. Full stop."
I kind of disagree. If you turn into an output machine creativity will suffer
icecream_truck said:
"Qualified votes in an election. Quality is 100% irrelevant."
Clickum245 replied:
"In America, you could consider a rural vote to be higher quality than an urban vote because of its weight in the electoral college."
That's so unbelievably undemocratic I can't wrap my German head around it
"Practice. People learning something like programming, art or any other skill will get better far faster by busily churning out piles of work and learning from mistakes instead of trying to pursue perfection."
No. The practice has to have a purpose. Just mindlessly repeating the same task might make you faster at it, but it won't make you better. You need directed practice.
"People showing up at your tag sale."
"Hair on the head."
I dunno, I'd rather see a well shaven chrome dome than someone trying to make due with a comb over just to prove they can grow those few hairs.
"When learning to make music. Or anything creative really. In the beginning, the most important thing is to write a lot of music. Get out all the bad music out of your system and then catch the good ones when they come. Listen to the song you have made. What do you not like about it? Make a mental note and move on to the next song and apply the new information on that song. Don't try to polish a t**d. I think this goes for a lot of things. But of course not everything."
"Chicken nuggets. They could be the best artisanal hand crafted nuggets made from only free-range super happy chickens and micro-brewed beer batter - but if there's only 4 or 5 of them, I'm gonna have a bad time. My record is ~40 in one (long) sitting. That was a regretful morning-after-the-night-before."
Kind of disagree with this one. Would rather pay more for any type of meat of it means the animal was well looked after and had a healthy life.
"According to teachers the amount of homework."
-eDgAR- said:
"According to a lot of teachers and professors, words in a paper. I hated that so much in high school and college where I would have to add a bunch of extra bull***t to a paper to meet the minimum amount of words."
spamicide replied:
"I'm a university professor, and that's why I no longer have an exact page count. "I would like a reaction paper of 2-5 pages. Say what you have to say and keep it at that." It still freaks some students out. They have been programmed by their prior educational experiences to deliver an exact page/word count. The ambiguity is too much for them. I just remind them that lots of things in the real world don't have page counts."
I require a range of word counts or else most students will turn in a short paper with little engagement with the assignment and then complain about the bad grade since I didn't specify a word count. I don't arbitrarily assign a word count though. I've been teaching university for 14 years and know generally for what word counts students should aim for the type of assignment. HOWEVER, I am clear that if a student properly engages the assignment and is short of the word count, then it's not a problem. I do warn them they should probably check in with me before the due date if they think this is the case. I also warn students that I know what padding a paper looks like and don't try it. Same issue as before. Talk to me before due date. On the other side of the range, the word count also limits wordy students or way-overachievers. Often these students simply haven't learned how to digest and properly summarize their reading or research. I will read any of their papers in advance to help.
"Ramen noodles, except they are really both. Cheap and they have many different flavors to choose."
darthvader00101 said:
"Tupperware lids."
boniqmin replied:
"None of them fit your Tupperware."
Tupperware has, or had, a lifetime guarantee on its product. You can get a new one or a lid.
"Breakfast at a restaurant. The actual quality of breakfast food plateaus pretty early. As long as they cook your eggs as requested and don't undercook the hashbrowns, I don't really care that much how carefully the meal was prepared. What I will not accept, however, is ordering biscuits and gravy, a dish that is specifically supposed to be about excess, and still being hungry when I'm finished."
In food it's always quality over quantity, except when you're poor and starving of course.
"Friends in a fight; doesn’t matter how good you are, you can’t punch three people at the same time. Unless you are in a Hollywood movie, that is."
Or if you are Zara. Headless Roach is too small to land a hard enough punch. Ocean creatures shall prevail!!
"Bees. When Oprah Winfrey gave away a bunch of bees on her show, it didn't matter if they were top quality or not. A bee is a bee."
It probably matters if you give a away queen bees or practically useless drones
devinofthenorth said:
"GPA. Unless your school does weighted, you only need "A"s to get a good one. Everyone in my graduating class with 4.0s took 4 years of Home Ec and Gym class to blow off their time in school."
Direwolf202 replied:
"Yup, I took a bunch of super hard classes, did loads of work, and ended up with 3.6; my friend took a bunch of easier classes, and got 4.0 without any massive effort."
Walueedeedee said:
"Funeral kazoos."
Random_Stealth_Ward replied:
"Are you tired of looking at all the people despairing over the loss of a good friend, family and loved member of the community? Is that widow annoying you with her tears over her husband's cold, dead body? Wanna make little Tommy stop bawling his eyes out because his last words to his dad were "I hate you, you don't understand me" and that's a regret he will carry for the rest of his life? Well, funeral Kazoo is your best bet to lighten the mood and turn all those frowns into smiles! Just one single blow and you will get the party started, because I am sure good old whatshisname would want you to remember him with a warm smile."
Chubtato said:
"When trying to break the YouTube algorithm."
geekygirl25 replied:
"Exactly. Do your best to flood the site. Eventually, 1 of your videos ought to land in the algorithm's favor for at least a day or so. Even if it doesn't actually get all that many views, it will get some and it's a step in the right direction. Next, you just have to try and replicate whatever that video had going for it."
dispose_of_rose said:
"When food is present. Ok I don't need no tiny meal I know damn well I'm gonna finish within 5 minutes, where the hell is my big mac with a side of fries."
mickier replied:
"I get so mad about gourmet, fine-dining restaurants. If you're a foodie it's cool and all, but I don't know if I've ever liked my teeny $30 entree from one of those more than I've liked my $9 fish and chips or whatever from somewhere else. I can appreciate high-quality food, but it's not good enough to spend 5x as much on."
"I'd rather have a b***load of crumpled $100 bills than one shiny new one."
Nomed73 said:
"When you eat rice. One good rice grain won’t satisfy hunger but a cup of mediocre rice will."
liriodendron1 replied:
"'Rice is great when your hungry and you want to eat like 10,000 of something.' - Mitch Hedburg."
AucuneChance said:
"People buying your stuff."
runnychocolate replied:
"100 people buying your things at asking price vs 1 guy buying your things at 1000× asking price."
"Skittles."
Ehh... I think I would prefer a small handful of fresh Skittles just out of a sealed package than a bucket of stale, rock hard, covered in pet hair Skittles that were just dredged from between the cushions of a couch.
badbadradbad said:
"Munchies. I don’t want a fine meal, I want to be able to consistently put something in my face."
FrigidSloth replied:
"Pastries are amazing munchies. I could Belgian buns endlessly, same goes for cinnamon buns."
Ethre said:
"Vodka? It all tastes bad but gets you drunk pretty quick."
must_not_forget_pwd replied:
"There are impurities in vodka. The better vodkas have fewer."
"Chips, because the pack is always half air."
Clickum245 said:
"Zerg rush."
Feet2Big replied:
"Speed is a quality."
omnisephiroth replied:
"And a quantity!"
Bing_Bong_the_Archer said:
"Vespene gas. You’ll hear all the sales talk about using premium quality, but it’s all the same stuff."
nalydpsycho replied:
"Never heard anyone say, "we need better Vespene gas." But, "we need more Vespene gas"."
"Hydrogen, when creating a new universe. Honestly, you need so much hydrogen. If you have enough, the quality emerges from quantity anyway; All the heavy metals and galaxies and nebulas and life and sentience all that s***."
"Clothes. If the world in general had more clothes that aren’t always good quality... given enough clothes spread everywhere evenly, people who need warmth could layer up on less quality clothes to survive, rather than having one good jacket that would not be enough."
I completely disagree with that. One or two good and sturdy outfits for everyone like they had in the earlier days and lots of undergarments would be much better for everyone. We have tons of fast fashion, much more than the world ever needs, but still some people struggle because it's a scam to make more money. In the past, when clothes where still sturdy and well made, people who could afford to go with fashion would donate their old clothes to the poor and people could wear those clothes for many years. Nowadays you need new clothes almost every year because they rip so fast and get holes. Here quality definitely beats quantity and in the end everyone would profit, including the environment, if cheap and crappy clothes were never invented
So many of these are just greedy people who can't appreciate quality
Agreed, even if they aren’t that good, they’re still tater tots, which is great lol
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So many of these are just greedy people who can't appreciate quality
Agreed, even if they aren’t that good, they’re still tater tots, which is great lol
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