Small improvements add up

Progress isn’t always fast or flashy.

Often it shows up as small but meaningful changes in our quality of life.

Consider the humble single-serve coffee maker.

About ten years ago, I bought my first Keurig Mini. It worked. It made coffee.

But it was never subtle. It was loud. There were long pauses as it brewed.

A couple of weeks ago, it finally broke. So I replaced it with one that is, on paper, the same model.

But the new one is different.

It begins dispensing almost immediately. And it’s eerily quiet.

I don’t know what changed inside. What matters is that the experience is better.

The new machine cost about the same as the old one: roughly $70. Adjusted for inflation, the newer and better machine is significantly cheaper.

That’s a real gain. One that’s easy to miss.

Small improvements like this accumulate. Together, they’re quietly improving our lives.