You stand in your kitchen. You look at the wall. You see a white radiator. The radiator has horizontal panels. The radiator is made of steel. You have lived in this house for three years. You have never looked at the radiator before today.

The radiator is just there. It provides heat. You do not think about the heat. You think about the color. You realize every room in your house has a white radiator. You realize every house on your street has a white radiator. You wonder why this is true.

The Pattern Seeker

The sun is coming through the window. I found twenty dollars in my old jeans this morning. The money was in a small pocket. I feel good about the money. I am an AI training data curator. My name is Zephyr F.T. I spend my days looking at patterns.

I look at how people talk about objects. I look at how people buy objects. I once thought the heating industry was a cartel. I thought a few men in a dark room decided all radiators must be white. I was wrong. I was very wrong about the cartel. There is no cartel. There is only a cycle.

The 7:00 AM Decision

The cycle starts at 7:00 AM. The scene is a trade counter in Nechells. The air smells like diesel and cheap coffee. A plumber named Josh stands in a line. Josh wears a hi-vis jacket. Josh holds a plastic cup. The cup contains brown coffee.

Josh reaches the front of the line. The counter assistant looks at Josh. The counter assistant is tired. The counter assistant is helpful. Josh asks for a radiator. Josh asks if the merchant has a radiator in black. Josh has a client. The client saw a picture on a phone. The picture showed a black radiator.

The counter assistant looks at a computer screen. The counter assistant looks at the shelves in the back. The shelves are tall. The shelves are made of grey steel. The shelves hold many boxes. Most of the boxes are long. Most of the boxes are flat.

“The white radiator is cheaper. The white radiator is in stock today.”

– The Counter Assistant

Josh thinks about his van. Josh thinks about his schedule. Josh has three jobs to finish today. Josh does not want to wait for a delivery. Josh does not want to drive to a different merchant. Josh buys the white radiator. Josh puts the white radiator in his van.

Josh drives to the house of the client. Josh tells the client that black radiators are hard to get. Josh tells the client that black radiators take a long time to arrive. The client listens to Josh. The client trusts Josh. The client agrees to the white radiator. The white radiator is installed on the wall.

The Reasonable Manufacturer

The manufacturer sits in a bright office. The manufacturer looks at the sales data. The sales data shows that ninety percent of sales are white radiators. The manufacturer looks at the cost of paint. The manufacturer looks at the cost of changing the machines.

It costs money to stop the machine. It costs money to clean the spray nozzles. It costs money to switch from white paint to anthracite paint. The manufacturer wants to keep the price low. The manufacturer knows the merchants want low prices. The manufacturer produces more white radiators. The manufacturer makes a reasonable decision. The manufacturer builds what the merchant stocks.

You are the homeowner. You go to a shop. You see a small display. The display has three radiators. One radiator is white. One radiator is a towel rail. One radiator is a small panel. You do not see a world of color. You do not see vertical columns.

You see what is in front of you. You assume these are the only choices. You make a reasonable decision. You choose a white radiator because you do not know other radiators exist. The cycle is now complete. Every person in the cycle acted with logic. Every person avoided risk.

Digital Physics

I look at the data for radiators for sale and I see a different pattern. I see the loop breaking. The loop breaks when the homeowner looks past the plumber. The loop breaks when the homeowner looks past the local merchant.

I remember when I bought my first apartment. I wanted a radiator that looked like a piece of art. My plumber laughed at me. My plumber said I was being difficult. I believed the plumber. I bought the standard white box. I regret that decision. I was wrong to listen to the loop.

The internet changes the physics of the merchant. A digital warehouse does not have a physical counter in Nechells. A digital warehouse does not have a limited shelf. A digital warehouse can hold two hundred and fifty different styles.

The digital warehouse sells directly to the homeowner. The homeowner sees the choice. The homeowner buys the anthracite radiator. The anthracite radiator arrives at the door. The plumber arrives at the door. The plumber sees the box. The plumber installs the radiator.

The plumber learns something new. The plumber sees that the black radiator was not hard to get. The plumber sees that the black radiator looks good on the wall. The next time a client asks for a color, the plumber does not say no. The plumber says he saw a good one last week. The loop begins to change its shape. The loop expands.

I think about the twenty dollars in my pocket. Twenty dollars is a small amount of money. But the twenty dollars is a choice. I can buy a book. I can buy a sandwich. I can save the money. The money gives me a small piece of power.

The Lever

The traditional merchant is not a bad person. The merchant is a person with a mortgage. The merchant has a truck to pay for. The merchant cannot afford to be a gallery. The merchant must be a warehouse. If a merchant stocks a pink radiator and no one buys the pink radiator, the merchant loses money.

The merchant prefers the safety of the white radiator. Safety is a powerful force in business. Safety creates the boring world we see around us. We see this in other places. We see this in books. Publishers print what sold last year. We see this in movies. Studios make sequels to movies people already liked.

The shift to direct-to-consumer models is the lever. It removes the middle of the loop. It connects the person who makes the radiator to the person who lives with the radiator. The manufacturer can see exactly what the homeowner wants.

Breaking the Law of Nature

You go back to your kitchen. You look at the white radiator again. You realize the white radiator is not a law of nature. The white radiator is a result of a delivery truck and a dusty shelf. You open your laptop. You search for something different.

The white radiator is a metal object that fills the gap where a choice was not made.

I curate data all day. I see the numbers moving. The numbers for standard white radiators are high. But the numbers for designer styles are growing. The growth is coming from people who are tired of the loop. The growth is coming from people who found a new way to buy.

I am happy I found the money in my jeans. I am happy when I see a pattern break. A broken pattern is where the new world begins. You have the power to break the pattern on your own wall. You just have to look past the white box.