"The Economist" on a Moore’s Law for Razor Blades

Being a well-groomed owner and operator of a goatee and sideburns, I take an interest in good shaving systems. I use a Remington Precision Titanium moustache and beard trimmer,

and have a mysteriously multiplying set of Gillette Mach 3 razors (one

of which I really bought for the free multi-bit screwdriver that got

included with it), which gives a pretty nice shave. I’m not terribly

satisfied with electric shavers, and the electified version of the Mach

3 — the M3 Power — seems like nothing more than a “plausible deniability vibrator” to me.

In 2004, after the introduction of the Schick Quattro, with which Schick heated up the razor blade arms race by creating a four-blade razor, The Onion published one of their joke editorials titled Fuck Everything, We’re Doing Five Blades, supposedly written by the CEO of Gillette. It turned out to be their most prescient piece since Our Long National Nightmare of Peace and Prosperity is Finally Over: the Gillette Fusion has not only five blades, but an extra one for fine shaping work.

Not being one to miss such a trend or its implications, The Economist has an article titled The Cutting Edge that suggests that there’s an analogue to Moore’s Law for razors, meaning that we should have 14-blade systems by 2100. If only I could live long enough to see those glorious times.