What is quality? We often try to achieve it, consciously or unconsciously in our actions. Quality is not a human invention – other living organisms strive for quality in their lives as well. Is quality something that we are born with, then? Or is it a learned experience, a skill that we acquire over a lifetime? A similar question is often asked about the many aspects of the human mind. Psychological theories exist, arguing that a human mind has some innate learned behaviors, while others claim that all behavior is learned through experience. Yet another idea claims that behaviors are both innate and learned. Quality, in my opinion, is a combination of inherent knowledge, and lifetime experience. Quality is acquired at birth – a baby can tell good food from bad, for example; it is also a learned skill – people often train for years in order to better distinguish something of supposedly higher quality or create a better-quality item. An engineer, for example, may spend years to perfect an invention or improve the efficiency, and thus, quality, of some object or concept. I would like to discuss how quality is present in an object created with quality work, how one achieves quality in their actions, and the reasons for needing this quality.

Quality as defined by Merriam-Webster is a “degree of excellence.” (Webster 2007-2008) This definition, however, is rather short and vague to be used to describe
something of such importance to the world. A better way to define quality may be through examples that clearly demonstrate some degree of it. A bicycle has quality in it as an object – it has some purpose and fulfills it to a certain degree. Thus, a high-quality bike will fulfill its purpose well, while a low-quality bike will do so poorly, or may fulfill some other purpose instead. If an object fulfills a purpose different from its original, it has some quality – possibly a lot if you consider this other purpose as the new main purpose of the object. A bicycle, then, can have several original purposes: racing, touring, or off-road cycling to name a few. Each of these purposes requires the bike to fulfill different sets of characteristics to a certain degree. A bike that is well-suited to traverse city streets is lightweight with thin wheels reducing the effort it takes to travel in ideal conditions. This kind of bike is likely to perform worse off-road due to less traction, lack of shock-absorption, and possibly less control over sudden jolts. A mountain bike, on the other hand, is much sturdier, with thicker wheels for better traction, suspension systems, and disk brakes for moving across mountainous or off-road terrain. The disadvantages of the mountain bike are its much heavier frame and a less aerodynamic design, making it inefficient when road conditions are good. Both of the above-mentioned bikes have quality when fulfilling their original purposes. But one only needs to use a bike in a wrong setting and this quality level goes down. Thus quality in accomplishing one goal may actually decrease quality that the object, action, or idea has in accomplishing another one.

Regardless of what kind of bike a person may have, it will require regular maintenance in order to perform well. The chain must be lubricated regularly and adjusted if the links are misaligned. The tire pressure needs to be checked and the tires pumped up if it is too low. Bike tires also need to be changed occasionally as they will wear out under prolonged or frequent use. If a bike has been hit, it is likely that the wheels will not be straight and will need to be realigned. Shifting and braking mechanisms may become unaligned at times and need to be corrected as well. Quality work must be put into the bicycle in order to maintain its quality as an object. One achieves quality in actions by having sufficient knowledge of the work, and using that knowledge well. The work can achieve higher quality by being efficient, producing high-quality objects or ideas, and choosing the plan of action with the most quality whenever one characteristic will take from another one. Choosing between several aspects of one object or idea in order to maximize its potential may be a very difficult, if not impossible feat to accomplish perfectly. If perfection is unattainable, one must choose the best possible distribution of quality across the given characteristics. Choosing between these characteristics is often an art – a skill that a person may spend a lifetime improving.

It may now appear that a lot of effort is put into creating and maintaining quality. One may then wonder if quality has some purpose that is of importance to us. Quality is the basis for existence as we know it – it can be seen in everything and traced back as far as human history goes. The purpose of creating and maintaining quality objects is to improve one’s physical or emotional state. This, in turn, allows one to function better on a daily basis – to be more productive at work, more satisfied on a vacation, and more connected to other people. According to the theory of evolution, if one can perform better
overall, one has a higher chance of passing their genes onto later generations. Therefore, quality has been strived for in all life forms as long as natural selection existed on earth.
Quality as a means of natural selection is displayed in animals just as much as it is in humans. Bowerbird males, for example, build fancy structures to attract the females. These structures are not nests and serve no purpose other than to make the male more appealing. Successful bowers are often build with arrangements of colored sticks, flowers, shells, beetle parts, and any other shiny objects that might strike the bird’s fancy. These bowers can be distinguished by humans to have different levels of quality – human sense of visual appeasement is somewhat similar to that of a bowerbird. A male that can construct a bower of higher quality than his competitors is therefore more likely to succeed in reproducing and passing his genes on – a concept of utmost importance in nature.

In conclusion, quality is present in every object and action that people or any other life form may encounter. The definition of quality varies from object to object, as well as with changing situations, time periods, and purposes. Quality is difficult to define for this very reason: it changes easily depending on the subject. Quality in one aspect may even lower the quality that the same object, action, or idea has in another aspect. The purpose of quality is to improve conditions in a given situation and in the future. By improving these conditions, life can better fulfill its purpose – to exist. The reason why humans have always strived for quality in everything is biologically imprinted in our minds. Having higher quality of existence allows us to better survive and fulfill our hierarchy of needs.