Luxury items, particularly watches and shoes and shit. Conspicuously ranking your wealth like that is cringe as fuck. “Ah yes, I see you can afford the DoucheKeeper 2121. That’s ok I guess, if you can’t afford the DoucheKeeper 2424.”
It makes far more sense to just dress well below your “status” imo. Real confidence is being above all that vanity, and real intrigue is keeping people guessing about your “status.” You want to know what I do and how much money I do or don’t have? Get to know me, and you’ll discover none of that shit matters.
Parenthood.
Coffee in the morning.
People be losing their minds over an addition.
I only lose my mind over advanced calculus. That’s some rough stuff.
Almost did lose it over probability distribution
Superhero movies. Very repetitive and predictable.
Most things that people seem to get hyped over really. Not big on buying things. Books are an exception but most people aren’t hyped about those
Most celebrities. I know its usually manufactured hype, but I still don’t understand people falling for it.
Collectible toys. On top of not getting it, I hate it from an environmental perspective and a wasted resources (incl labor) perspective.
The Chance-Vought F4U Corsair. People fangirl over the reverse gull-wings but I just don’t get it. Bending the goddamn wings to fit the the prop on the plan is just a bizarre bandaid for an odd design.
Gimme that P-47 chunky monkey any day
I may be dating myself here, but Beanie Babies.
Is that some kind of labubu?
Labubus.
Kids wanting them I get, but the craze among adults for them is baffling to me. And the blind bag mechanic is just a bullshit way to get people to buy more than they actually want in an attempt to collect a full set. It’s honestly kind of sad to see so many adults fall for something meant to manipulate children into begging their parents to buy over and over again.
You know something is worth your money when they deliberately obfuscate what you’re actually buying.
NFTs
LOTR stuff. Pompous and boring.
How very dare you Sir/Madam!
Why, I’ll have you know…
Hmmm, maybe it is?!
Driving a pickup truck as your commute vehicle. The mileage is terrible, and you have reduced visibility in front of the hood. Get a safer and more efficient vehicle. It’ll be cheaper!
The way to restrict them to industrial purposes is to require a CDL or at least a higher level license to drive them. It would make sense too, they’re objectively more dangerous so why shouldn’t the licensing for them be more strict?
I think this might be a potential disconnected between rural and urban folks. A lot of trucks are big and stupid; and unsafe. But an old style reasonable pick up doesn’t need a CDL. It’s very useful for moving things that you don’t want to mess up your interior. During the summer my family takes one with a small motorcycle and inflatable kayaks to raft rivers in Colorado; quite useful. But I get it in the cities; even our reasonable sized sedan felt big having the parallel park when I’ve visited them.
I wouldn’t want one myself, but I don’t understand trying to ban something just because I don’t like it.
But apparently, that’s a popular sentiment
Not ban, but make the licensing process more rigorous for a vehicle that takes more skill to operate safely compared to a standard car. Anyone can get a higher class drivers license if they pass the test, but the majority of people won’t bother so you end up with less trucks driven by people who just want to look cool.
If people want to look cool, why not let them enjoy life? Should we perhaps ban hairdressers, in favour of a mandatory buzz cut?
Because trucks have been proven to be more dangerous and make any accident more likely to be fatal? They also present unique safety challenges not present in smaller cars, namely they have a huge blind spot in front of them like any other tall commercial vehicle. If you’re going to drive a more dangerous vehicle, you’d better actually know how to drive it safely.
I agree, 90%. That being said, some people can’t afford a car that isn’t provided by their construction employer. Some people have hobbies that involve moving things (motorcycles, mountain bikes, wood, etc) and can only afford one car. And I’m sure there are reasons I’m not thinking of.
Most people with pickups around me do not need them, but having owned a small S10 years ago for a similar to above reason, I try to see why they exist, and try not to judge if it’s not obvious.
All that being said, Why oh why are they so big now?
You can usually tell the difference, because the tradesperson’s truck is full of crap all the time and probably worn out, while the parking lot princess in empty and pristine.
Lifting is also a strong hint, since it makes the bed very hard to reach. I have seen a lifted pickup with a full bed exactly once since I started paying attention.
Also, the people actually using their trucks don’t get the ones with 5 “genuine leather” seats, extra legroom, top of the line speakers which they’ll definitely blast with the windows down for the whole street to hear, and a bed barely bigger than the compartment on a hatchback.
I see mostly two door trucks at construction sites. Never seen one of those luxury ones with the huge cabin.
Mountain bikes can easily be carried with a car, motorcycles are normally self propelled and don’t need to a pick up truck to move them and they make trailers for moving them that can be towed by a normal sedan, wood is another thing that’s not normally transported unless you are using the truck for work and can be easily transported by a trailer or a rental truck for infrequent use
A family of mountain bikes is not great on the back/top of a car. Not all motorcycles are for the road. And wood is very normally transported if that is your hobby.
Yes, but otherwise, how will you pose as a tough salt-of-the-earth guy while driving to your HR job?
Anime profile pictures and wallpapers
Souls-like games, game streamers, turkey (the meat).
Most things. Hype is usually just marketing, at least nowadays. I’ve seen a lot of hypes come and go, and it’s always the same playbook.
Products don’t blow up unless they’re profitable to sell in the first place. So when I hear everyone going crazy over a new product or concept, I try to analyze what’s in it for the businesses.
If it’s a general concept that a bunch of different vendors suddenly all start selling online, usually they can be found on alibaba for a fraction of the price by a bunch of niche Chinese companies who’s been making them in relatively small volumes for years and only recently did a bunch of “entrepreneurs” discover them and set up their dropshipping operations with associated viral marketing tactics. Fidget spinners were a good example of this.
Or if the product is a food, it usually has a ton of sugar which has been shown to be extremely addictive and subconsciously gets your brain to want not just sugar in general, but the other flavours associated with it so you’ll keep wanting more of the same product. Crumble cookies and “Dubai” chocolate come to mind.
I agree, they all appear rather insincere now. But maybe that’s just because we’ve grown older?
I bet parents knew the pokemon card thing was selling cardboard for an insane price based on mostly marketing.
Agree. Made a real effort in recent years to question the crap what I really need, and what’s a want vrs a need.
I feel a lot happier not buy stuff upon stuff. I’m trying to buy as much used/second hand as possible.
I don’t understand many of the product hypes. Why would you pay more to endorse someone’s brand. The cups. Like $50 for a cup. That’s crazy, you still drink the same water out of it.
