[mikecane]

Two things.

1) A clip from Moneyball: http://youtu.be/HiB9L3dG-Aw

2) I remember from a book about someone marketing in Japan. They were trying to sell a rice cooker that could also cook other foods. They couldn't understand why this convenience wouldn't sell. It seemed to solve a "problem." In many consumer interviews, a passing comment revealed the new problem they had actually created. Housewives feared that the taste of other foods would creep into the rice and ruin it. They stopped selling the cooker.

[auxbuss]

I have one of those rice cookers. It's the single best piece of cooking equipment I've ever owned. It has a Teflon pot, so flavours don't linger. We cook chilli in it, wok-style fried rice dishes, baked fish, breakfast fry ups, and a lot of boiled rice-based dishes. Awesome piece of kit.