A proper engineer would make the tag absorbent and use the principle of capillarity to transfer the water to the bag (and the other way round once tea flavoured) to cover this case.

Users can't avoid being stupid, but a proper engineer should be able to cover all cases.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago (2 children)

This assumes an infinite timeline and budget.

[–] sukhmel 12 points 3 months ago

Well, no proper engineer will agree to less than that

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

And also the existence of a perfectly insulative, yet durable and long-lasting sheath for the bag and string. I realise it's just an analogy, and in cyberspace that sort of thing is trivial, but with real matter it's beyond a pipe dream.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)

No, that complicates things way too much. Simplicity in design is beauty. A real engineer would recognize the tag on the string not only as a point a confusion, but also a superfluous feature. Simply remove it. The end user will have to use a spoon supplied by themselves to remove the teabag, but thats their problem. At least there is actually tea in the cup at that point.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Loose leaf tea is peak design.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I disagree. The teabag is a welcome replacement to having to have yet another unitasker in the kitchen.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Or the pg tips approach: 'd'ya know what? No more tag or thread for ya now you've got to fish and pinch the baggy out of your scolding tea ya wanker'.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

So you're saying it should wick the water from the cup to the table like an oil lantern. That seems like a good way to have half of your cup on the table.😂

If you get it to travel up the string, gravity will definitely do the rest. It seems like such a passive aggressive way to design a product and I'm all for it.