I find it quite interesting how people take it upon themselves to judge someones reason for wanting or doing something as legitimate or not. I bought an iPad so I could sit on the can and read google news. Is that legitimate or not? Well, I don't care. Buying something because I wanted it is legitimate. Justifying purchases is way, way overvalued, in my opinion.
I think this has enough relevance to post up here (if not, my bad): Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work. I'm midway through it now, and the author discusses this very topic. It's well worth the read.
I halfway agree. While it is stupid to pay that much for jeans, there most certainly is a huge difference between the way different denim looks and feels. Raw denim definitely has a different look from factory-distressed denim. Selvedge denim can be worth it if you really need your jeans to stay in great shape. And the difference between a shitty wash and a well-done wash is obvious to the sort of people who care. That being said, I wouldn't spend more than $60 on jeans. Labels are stupid; quality is not. Disagree (kind of). Modern college isn't for everybody, for sure. And some people are wasting their time. But, like anything else, it's what you make of it. Sure, you CAN learn a bunch of what you'd get from a history degree in a couple dollars in late fees at your local library. But not everybody is Will Hunting or Ryan Holiday, and for a lot of people, learning about a variety of things in a structured environment is conducive to their intellectual growth, which in turn helps them be better people AND better employees, even if it has nothing to do with thier job description. It also can put you into contact with people who know a lot more than you. Absolutely agree. For literally the price some people pay for McDonald's, you can make much, much better food at home. As a corrollary, is anything more overvalued than eggs or pasta in a restaurant? And why do people crowd into brunch places that are going to serve you breakfast food at thousands of percent markup and try to shuffle you out for more customers after 35 minutes?
In that vein, Overvalued: Diversity. More specifically, the idea of "celebrating/respecting/whatevering diversity". The notion has always weirded me out and I'm convinced all it does is foster a way for bigotry to live on in the 21st century. In terms of eliminating prejudice, intolerance, and the like I've always believed it's much more productive to focus on the things that people have in common than to highlight everyone's differences.
I've met a fair number of people who have done something other than go to university straight after high school. Most of these people joined the military (and as such, their education is subsidized so they can become officers and get a better pension and salary), but I have to say: although they often don't go to university until after most people have already graduated, they're adults in every sense of the word at an age when my classmates, for example, still talk about things they did in high school for job interviews, even though we all have at least five years, and often more, of post-secondary education - so much for that four year experience. And on the flip side, these people who delayed school are probably bummed out that they didn't go to university sooner to get it out of the way, but I think there's a balance to be struck. On the whole, for most high school graduates, I think there's a lot better they can do with themselves than go straight to university. There's plenty of temporary jobs in industries like tourism, and specialized gap year programs, that seem almost perfect for an 18 year old to do for a year or two before going to university. You have a fair amount of freedom, but the responsibility of managing your own budget, paying your own bills, showing up to work on time, and you're living in a new place with new people. It's almost like university, except you're not burying yourself in debt to do it. And with the maturation that a little responsibility and self-reliance will instill, by the time you do go off to university, you'll probably get a whole lot more out of the experience, academically and otherwise. And while we're on the topic of phones, phone manners are underrated. Fucking kids these days.
You know what I think turns people off to cooking (aside from laziness)? Cuisine. We live in a culture that presents the image that in order to cook good food you have to conjure up complicated recipes with fifteen different ingredients and combine them in such precise amounts and methods that would make a chemist blush. Cooking has been appropriated from being a basic life skill to high art that can't "properly" be done unless you went to culinary school and served under a master chef.
Try to justify canned spaghetti sauce to me. That's not cuisine, that's mind boggling. It's people not giving a shit or being lazy.
I think it's more a matter of lack of planning. We plan out the week's dinner menu, then our grocery list based on that, and who's going to do the cooking based on schedules, etc. I'm amazed at how many people find this a completely foreign concept, but then, these same people seem to live on frozen foods, take-out or a combination. They ask, "Where did you learn to cook?" and I reply, "In the kitchen, where else?" We like to try new recipes, but we always look at the total time investment (prep + cooking) to determine if it's feasible on a weeknight or better left for a lazy Saturday or Sunday, but much of our dinners are the simpler ethnic dishes my wife and I grew up on.
This is exactly what I'm talking about. So if I put canned sauce on my spaghetti my entire meal is invalidated and I'm a lazy sack of shit who can't cook because I didn't make my sauce from scratch?
Pffffffffffft. I'm part Italian and don't even make my own shit. I use the jarred as the base of my own though. Adding onion, garlic, S&P, a spoonful of sugar, a can of tomato paste and 2 little cans of the sauce, Italian seasoning and a package of Italian sausage does wonders. I am neither lazy or a chef but I can cook and take the shortcuts that seem logical but don't sacrifice flavor or quality. You guys are silly, debating spaghetti sauce. Only in this place. Carry on.
No. But if that's all you do because you don't know how to make spaghetti sauce, then yes. Absolutely. 100% grade A shit, of quantity sack.
I think people undervalue higher quality values and overvalue lower quality ones. Wait....this isn't the drunk thread. "And you may ask yourself, how did I get here?"
By the way, just to clarify a bit on my "spaghetti sauce" comment. Sure, we all live hectic lifestyles, and at times we all have to make meals in a hurry or just throw something into the microwave. Hell, tonight's been a bitch around my place (sub-zero water leaks in the ceiling are always fun), so I dug into my healthy supply of canned stuff and threw it in the microwave while I waited for the plumber to come out. But life isn't always about living off of beer and hot pockets. At some point, you should start learning how to cook real food, with ingredients you find in the part of the supermarket that you never go to. Using canned/jarred spaghetti sauce as an ingredient (as in one of many, not the singular) is not the same thing as not knowing how to do anything other than just pour the jar's contents onto the noodles. Spaghetti sauce is one of the easiest things in the world to make. That's why I brought it up. A couple of simple herbs and spices, some garlic, tomato paste, and maybe some crushed tomatoes, poured into some fried ground beef, and let it reduce. That's it. Easy to make, and you can make it for stupidly cheap. That whole "it's a cuisine" thing is a hipster bullshit cop-out. And any other excuse you can come up with for not learning how to cook some simple basic things is also a cop-out. Never mind that for all the talk around here about bagging hot babes it's amazing to me that more of you don't get the fact that if you can cook a decent meal for a chick, and put even a small amount of effort into some romantic ambiance, she'll probably go ATM on the dining room table. It doesn't even have to be anything fancy... something simple, but tasty. Hell, one of the hottest dates I've ever had involved the two of us making our own pasta (which is also stupidly easy), and a simple but spicy spaghetti sauce, and having a couple bottles of wine. So yeah... cooking. It's a life skill that I think has become very undervalued by a large number of people.
I've got to partly disagree with you on this one. There is a hell of a difference in between the way a nice $150 pair of jeans fit you versus the $20 Wranglers. I was given a pair of D&G jeans as a gift several years ago and those pants fit like a glove. I like you also wear Wrangler jeans now because I refuse to pay premium prices for shit I'm wearing to school and work anyway. Undervalued: True friends I can honestly say every person I consider a friend I would trust with my life. I can also trust these people to not screw me over, give me unbiased opinions, and put me in my place if I'm being a jerk. Life is so much easier when you have great friends. Being able to do things on your own I know plenty of "men" who don't know how to cook for themselves, do their own laundry, or do basic maintenance on a car (among other things). I understand that some people are pressed for time and some things take precedence, but you will eventually one day regret always having to rely on other people to take care of your business for you. Intelligence Look assholes, quit saying I'm smart/a genius. I don't even come close. Just pick up a fucking book every once in a while, open your ears and shut your mouth long enough and you might learn something. It astounds me how many people don't know how to do basic things in life. Over valued: New cars. I got a new truck because I thought I needed it for reliability for transporting my son back and forth. While I do enjoy the truck, I don't enjoy the almost $500 a month payment that it entails. I could have gotten something older and just as reliable for $20K less. I'm NEVER buying new ever again.
Under - I've notice that I've been undervaluing the free time I've had on break. I took it as a chance to spend 2 weeks straight on video games. It's only been since the last week of break that I've been encountering sun light and hanging out with my friends. Also I haven't spent nearly enough time with my dog, the beach, nor hanging with my parents on extracurricular activities that include more than dinner. I know some of you would have cherished your 3 weeks of freedom more than enough to toss it away on owning newbs on the internet. I guess I'll have to consolidate everything and take my dad to the dog park at the beach with me yeah! Over - I bought a Tom Bihn laptop case for 60 dollars, a desk lamp for 170 dollars, and a new desk to do my homework on for another 250 dollars. I also bought a laptop for $1300.00 I can assure you that I had no need to spend this much on items to help me stay focused in school. In reality I just needed to camp out in the library. Especially because if I'm in my room, I'm just going to play video games or look at porn.
Overvalued: Other peoples' opinions. I have a Macbook, love it, and recommend Macs to anyone looking for a new computer. However, many people love to shit all over Macs, and that is perfectly fine with me. I don't need your approval of the choices I make and the items I buy. In fact, I would rather you not buy a Mac, that way mine is less likely to get a virus (although not having a registry helps with this). Undervalued: Quality products. I'm not saying buy into marketing, I'm saying research a product before you buy it and buy the best you can afford. If you buy quality tools, you get loose or tight fastens. If you buy cheap tools, you get stripped/rounded fastens. If you buy cheap shoes, you get sore feet. If you buy good shoes (and polish them), you get happy feet and compliments from women.
My dress shoes are polished to a mirror-like sheen, and fuckin' nobody compliments me for them. Nobody appreciates a well-polished shoe anymore.
You might be his equal with computers, but that man is in a league of his own when it comes to spaghetti sauce.