Remember the recent spat between Steve Jobs and his unofficial biographer Jeffrey Young? Wired News is running an excerpt from the book in question, iCon. It looks at Jobs' obsession over gadgets through a slightly strange prism --- buying a washing machine.
The big decision came down to whether to purchase a European machine or an American-made one. The European machine, according to Steve, does a much better job, uses about one-quarter as much water, and treats the clothes more gently so that they last longer. But the American machines take about half as long to wash the clothes.
"We spent some time in our family talking about what's the trade-off we want to make. We spent about two weeks talking about this. Every night at the dinner table" -- imagine dinner-table conversation about washing machines every night! -- "we'd get around to that old washer-dryer discussion. And the talk was about design."
To find out what they opted for, you're going to have to go and read the whole thing.
