Author Topic: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?  (Read 143906 times)

sol

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 8433
  • Age: 47
  • Location: Pacific Northwest
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #300 on: August 25, 2017, 11:29:32 AM »
I posit that anyone who has burned out multiple blenders in a single-digit number of uses is probably using their blenders incorrectly, and is thus personally responsible for the failures.

Discuss.


I broke a urinal once, by using it incorrectly.  I didn't blame the urinal (no further details will be provided on this event).  I have made thousands of smoothies in <$10 used blenders and never burned one out.  You have to pulse, people.  Go to a JambaJuice sometime and watch how they do it.  Stop blaming the appliances for your appliance abuses.

shelivesthedream

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 6745
  • Location: London, UK
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #301 on: August 25, 2017, 11:31:57 AM »
I don't disagree that one or two luxuries is probably fine if you're debt free or FI. But even if everyone gets just one unmustachian luxury and then comes on the forum to justify it you end up with one thread justifying blenders, another fancypants mattresses, another new SUVs etc.  It creates the appearance that mustachians consider all of those things as valid purchases, even if no individual mustachian indulges in more than one frivolous luxury. This might be some of the reason that it seems the forum seems to have gone soft. Then you get new users coming on here and coming to the conclusion that they are mustachian too even though they have expensive coffee/food/wine/car/blender/watch/travel habits because those things bring them value, and they don't mind working for a few extra years to pay for them.

I suppose the scenario I'm imagining is that if you have to ask, you're not Mustachian enough to be permitted it. Therefore the facepunches should pile in. However, perhaps the facepunches should come with the small caveat that you may be permitted it as your single unjustifiable extravagance if the rest of your life is optimised to the hilt.

solon

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2359
  • Age: 1823
  • Location: OH
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #302 on: August 25, 2017, 11:32:13 AM »
Sol Urinalbane, Destroyer of All that is Porcelain

dycker1978

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 768
  • Age: 45
  • Location: Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #303 on: August 25, 2017, 11:32:41 AM »
I posit that anyone who has burned out multiple blenders in a single-digit number of uses is probably using their blenders incorrectly, and is thus personally responsible for the failures.

Discuss.


I broke a urinal once, by using it incorrectly.  I didn't blame the urinal (no further details will be provided on this event).  I have made thousands of smoothies in <$10 used blenders and never burned one out.  You have to pulse, people.  Go to a JambaJuice sometime and watch how they do it.  Stop blaming the appliances for your appliance abuses.

LOL I am not sure I want any details.

As far as blenders go, I have burnt out a couple, but it was always my fault.  I have learnt, and now do better.

FINate

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3114
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #304 on: August 25, 2017, 12:00:57 PM »
This thread tempts me to troll the forums asking if I should buy a $600 pizza oven just to see what kind of responses I get :)

Davnasty

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 2793
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #305 on: August 25, 2017, 12:17:24 PM »
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the nutribullet yet. It's a bigger more powerful magic bullet.

~$80 and easy to buy with a coupon, or as always, used. I've used one for 3 years now averaging probably 5 uses per week and that includes lots of frozen things, almonds, hot soups/sauces and several spills into the base (biggest flaw is base design that can't be cleaned well).


sol

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 8433
  • Age: 47
  • Location: Pacific Northwest
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #306 on: August 25, 2017, 12:17:52 PM »
This thread tempts me to troll the forums asking if I should buy a $600 pizza oven just to see what kind of responses I get :)

If you claim it adds real value to your life, and you don't have any debt, I suspect the forum would tell you that $600 spent on a pizza oven is a better idea than $600 spent on malaria nets to literally save a life.  Because we all know that our personal value systems are unassailable, even if they prioritize having multiple pizza cooking options over dying children.

StarBright

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3270
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #307 on: August 25, 2017, 12:18:46 PM »
This thread tempts me to troll the forums asking if I should buy a $600 pizza oven just to see what kind of responses I get :)

Depends on how often you eat pizza ;)

CanuckExpat

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 2994
  • Age: 41
  • Location: North Carolina
    • Freedom35
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #308 on: August 25, 2017, 12:19:14 PM »
This thread tempts me to troll the forums asking if I should buy a $600 pizza oven just to see what kind of responses I get :)

I've been tempted in the past to consider making my own brick wood oven pizza oven. Which if I did would probably be applauded as a great DIY project.
In reality, once you consider materials, time, and my shitty DIY skills, buying a $600 pizza oven is probably the better idea, and would be safer for all involved, (would probably make better pizza too?)

GuitarStv

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 23128
  • Age: 42
  • Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #309 on: August 25, 2017, 12:23:04 PM »
I posit that anyone who has burned out multiple blenders in a single-digit number of uses is probably using their blenders incorrectly, and is thus personally responsible for the failures.

Discuss.


I broke a urinal once, by using it incorrectly.  I didn't blame the urinal (no further details will be provided on this event).  I have made thousands of smoothies in <$10 used blenders and never burned one out.  You have to pulse, people.  Go to a JambaJuice sometime and watch how they do it.  Stop blaming the appliances for your appliance abuses.

LOL I am not sure I want any details.

I do!

GenXbiker

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 327
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #310 on: August 25, 2017, 12:27:56 PM »
Cheap ~$20 blender here and no problem with smoothies.  I don't make them often, though.

sol

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 8433
  • Age: 47
  • Location: Pacific Northwest
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #311 on: August 25, 2017, 12:29:04 PM »
The 2017 estimates suggest that, statistically speaking, you can save the life of a child under five years old for every $974 you donate to Deworm the World.  Have you ever saved the life of a child?  Is that maybe on your bucket list?  Still want a new pizza oven?


Optimiser

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 771
  • Age: 41
  • Location: PNW
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #312 on: August 25, 2017, 12:34:32 PM »
All spending gets questionable when you start thinking of it in terms of human life.

GuitarStv

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 23128
  • Age: 42
  • Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #313 on: August 25, 2017, 12:39:00 PM »
All spending gets questionable when you start thinking of it in terms of human life.

This statement presupposed the reader's valuation of human life.

Davnasty

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 2793
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #314 on: August 25, 2017, 12:43:50 PM »
All spending gets questionable when you start thinking of it in terms of human life.

This statement presupposed the reader's valuation of human life.
Also, there's no reason to believe the person asking if they can justify an expensive appliance will make a donation in lieu making the purchase. I would assume the alternative to spending is keeping it in the stash.

On the other hand pointing out that the appliance costs nearly as much as saving a life may make them realize how stupid the purchase would be.

Cwadda

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2178
  • Age: 29
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #315 on: August 25, 2017, 01:04:16 PM »
Quote
If blending things is your one extravagance and you don't have any debt and have an emergency fund, whatever. Buy the multiple-hundred-dollar blender. But that is your one extravagance. Don't come crying about how you NEED a pumped-up SUV for safeteeeey, or a huge wardrobe for wooooork, or takeaway for nutritiiiiiooon. No, you picked blending things. Go and cycle, thrift shop and soak your beans.
I see your point but buying that blender is still unmustachian, IMO. It is not environmentally responsible. Buying a used blender reduces fossil fuels that were used to make all the plastic and glass of a new blender. It also prevents the used blender from ending up in a landfill.

I mean yeah, I agree, it's not Mustachian. But I'm saying that people get a free pass to do one unmustachian thing without getting a facepunch. I absolutely get that Mustachianism is about the planet as well as money, but you're allowed to buy one new thing without having your MMM card revoked - you're just not allowed to do it for everything. Maybe they would pick blending things with their gold-plated $800 blender as their one unmustachian extravagance. (Imho, some people on this forum travel in a horrendously unmustachian (I.e. Environmental death) way, but if everything else they do is Mustachian, I'm not going to haul them over the coals for that - despite the fact that my husband and I just decided to holiday in Bath rather than Rome because we didn't want to fly and couldn't make the trains work out for us this time. #justsaying)

ETA: Actually, you know what my real unmustachian, unfrugal, unenvironmental extravagance is? Copious amounts of hot water. You would have to pry my piping hot baths (not even a shower!!!) out of my cold dead hands. A five minute cold shower would get me just as clean as an hour-long bath, and I can read on the sofa just as well as in the bath. But my nightmare apocalypse scenario would be having to choose between hot baths and toilet paper. That's the level I regard this abundant wasteful extravagance of water and electricity.

I don't mean to point fingers. The real point that I want to make is this: To me, MMM isn't about rationalizing extravagant purchases, nor is it about comparing one unmustachian purchase to another, nor comparing one person's Mustachian (or Unmustachian) habits to another.

MMM is really an idea. The purpose is to challenge EVERY aspect of your life. Is X item bringing me joy? Could I do without it? Is it environmentally and socially responsible?

Really, I don't care about an $800 blender or taking long hot baths. I don't need to compare these things against my own habits. I just want people to think about the decisions they are making, and encourage a community of people who live positive, purposeful lives, making the world a little bit better. The power to make these decisions is to the individual, the community is here to challenge one another (not condemn), learn and grow.

FINate

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3114
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #316 on: August 25, 2017, 01:06:56 PM »
Taking the logic a step further...shouldn't we all donate our staches to save lives? FI requires a large amount of wealth that we put to use for our own benefit.

Cwadda

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2178
  • Age: 29
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #317 on: August 25, 2017, 01:11:34 PM »
This thread tempts me to troll the forums asking if I should buy a $600 pizza oven just to see what kind of responses I get :)

If you claim it adds real value to your life, and you don't have any debt, I suspect the forum would tell you that $600 spent on a pizza oven is a better idea than $600 spent on malaria nets to literally save a life.  Because we all know that our personal value systems are unassailable, even if they prioritize having multiple pizza cooking options over dying children.

The 2017 estimates suggest that, statistically speaking, you can save the life of a child under five years old for every $974 you donate to Deworm the World.  Have you ever saved the life of a child?  Is that maybe on your bucket list?  Still want a new pizza oven?

Holy shit, I was JUST reading about these two causes. Love them both. Need to do some more research on them.

Cwadda

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2178
  • Age: 29
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #318 on: August 25, 2017, 01:14:17 PM »
Taking the logic a step further...shouldn't we all donate our staches to save lives? FI requires a large amount of wealth that we put to use for our own benefit.

I intend to do so when I'm gone. No use for money when I'm dead. The point of FIRE is to live comfortably, but with as little as you can. Everything else you can really give away when your basic needs are met.

ender

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 7402
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #319 on: August 25, 2017, 01:24:55 PM »
I posit that anyone who has burned out multiple blenders in a single-digit number of uses is probably using their blenders incorrectly, and is thus personally responsible for the failures.

Discuss.

In college I worked on a senior design project diagnosing why a blender had fairly high warranty failures - it turned out that if the blender rotated more than a fraction on the base, the coupler had interference (and then easily wore out).

In order for this not to happen you had to be incredibly precise in how you applied pressure to the removable blender part - if it was anything other than straight down you likely wore away the coupler.

While this is technically user error, the ease of which you could wear away the coupler mechanism to me makes it hard to really fault people who hit that situation.

Caoineag

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 663
  • Age: 42
  • Location: Michigan
    • My Journal
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #320 on: August 25, 2017, 01:25:30 PM »
I posit that anyone who has burned out multiple blenders in a single-digit number of uses is probably using their blenders incorrectly, and is thus personally responsible for the failures.

Discuss.


I broke a urinal once, by using it incorrectly.  I didn't blame the urinal (no further details will be provided on this event).  I have made thousands of smoothies in <$10 used blenders and never burned one out.  You have to pulse, people.  Go to a JambaJuice sometime and watch how they do it.  Stop blaming the appliances for your appliance abuses.

But I don't blame the blenders (though in our defense the 2 in the single digit uses were cheap quality blenders, both received as wedding presents, we got more uses out of our other ones). You noticed my final sentence said that the verdict was that we make our smoothies too thick for blenders. That states outright user error or rather incorrect tool for the job, which is why we only use food processors now.

The more expensive (higher wattage) blender got used multiple times a day for 1 1/2 years before it broke. I said we got that per use down into the cents. But why buy a blender again when a food processor will last longer in my household and do the job even better? We try to minimize our buying of gadgets so delicate gadgets are the first on the chopping block.

Davnasty

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 2793
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #321 on: August 25, 2017, 01:26:49 PM »
Taking the logic a step further...shouldn't we all donate our staches to save lives? FI requires a large amount of wealth that we put to use for our own benefit.
And should we continue to work after achieving FI so that we can give our income away?

If I can save hundreds or even thousands of lives by working to 65, would it be immoral to RE?

Of course this is no longer a question of mustachianism but of morality. While there is overlap they are not one in the same.

FINate

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3114
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #322 on: August 25, 2017, 01:32:44 PM »
Taking the logic a step further...shouldn't we all donate our staches to save lives? FI requires a large amount of wealth that we put to use for our own benefit.

I intend to do so when I'm gone. No use for money when I'm dead. The point of FIRE is to live comfortably, but with as little as you can. Everything else you can really give away when your basic needs are met.

Living comfortably comes at a price vs. living with as little as you can while donating the excess of your earnings. Instead of saving 80% of your income for FIRE (and then sitting on a nest egg for decades after FIRE) you could just donate all excess income to worthy causes while forgoing the comforts of RE. It's a rhetorical question and I don't think there's an easy or clear cut answer.

sol

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 8433
  • Age: 47
  • Location: Pacific Northwest
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #323 on: August 25, 2017, 01:42:21 PM »
Living comfortably comes at a price vs. living with as little as you can while donating the excess of your earnings. Instead of saving 80% of your income for FIRE (and then sitting on a nest egg for decades after FIRE) you could just donate all excess income to worthy causes while forgoing the comforts of RE. It's a rhetorical question and I don't think there's an easy or clear cut answer.

My proposed solution is to give whatever is required to ease your conscience while working toward FI, then give away half of your income while you continue to work after FI.  This initial 50/50 split allows you to do serious good in the world while also providing personal incentive to keep it up.  Very few people in America donate half of their income, though lots of us here easily live on half (or less) of our salaries.

With this strategy you can save one life AND buy your pizza oven, instead of quitting/retiring and doing neither.  (Also instead of saving two lives.)
« Last Edit: August 25, 2017, 01:44:20 PM by sol »

GuitarStv

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 23128
  • Age: 42
  • Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #324 on: August 25, 2017, 02:05:18 PM »
Taking the logic a step further...shouldn't we all donate our staches to save lives? FI requires a large amount of wealth that we put to use for our own benefit.
And should we continue to work after achieving FI so that we can give our income away?

If I can save hundreds or even thousands of lives by working to 65, would it be immoral to RE?

Of course this is no longer a question of mustachianism but of morality. While there is overlap they are not one in the same.

Again, this comes down to your belief in the value of human life.

If you believe that human life in intrinsically more precious than anything on Earth, then you're obviously going give all of your money and keep working forever to try to maximize the lives saved.  This is a pretty uncommon viewpoint.

If you believe that human life is kinda important, but your (and your families) happiness is much more important, then you'll give some small fraction of your net worth and feel happy about helping out.

If you believe that humans are animals, and human life is not intrinsically worth more than the life of an animal then the death of more humans is probably a net moral benefit . . . and I'd suggest that the best course of action is probably somewhere between giving nothing and actively killing people.  (Every living human will likely cause the death of multiples of animals.)

FINate

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3114
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #325 on: August 25, 2017, 04:02:46 PM »
It's something I've thought a lot about since FIRE, and is the one thing that would get me back into the workforce. Not right now, my kids are young enough that we would be "robbing Peter to pay Paul" w.r.t. daycare, but once both kids are in school full time I think it's likely. Would have to be something local within reasonable biking distance, and with somewhat flexible unpaid leave.

BlueHouse

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4136
  • Location: WDC
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #326 on: August 25, 2017, 04:48:55 PM »
My theory is that some of this is due to the inability to search easily. People, particularly newbs, ask questions that have been thoroughly and even recently discussed. Costco membership, anyone?

I know ARS has posted a helpful tutorial, but the search function needs a working "Search" box, not a tutorial. OTOH, I am enormously grateful that this is a free, and moderated, site.
My theory is that the case study category attracts more newbs.  I begged for that topic, but after the mods created it, I hate it.  When I joined the forum, it took a while and all my guts to post my case study.  And I got ripped!  Nowadays, people don't get ripped because if they do, they just don't come back. 

GenXbiker

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 327
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #327 on: August 25, 2017, 06:03:47 PM »
Also, instead of leaving your assets to your entitled kids when you die, you might instead consider leaving everything to a good cause for the greater benefit of society.

WhiteTrashCash

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1983
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #328 on: August 25, 2017, 09:09:56 PM »
If you believe that humans are animals, and human life is not intrinsically worth more than the life of an animal then the death of more humans is probably a net moral benefit . . . and I'd suggest that the best course of action is probably somewhere between giving nothing and actively killing people.  (Every living human will likely cause the death of multiples of animals.)

"I’d like to share a revelation that I’ve had, during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you aren’t actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with its surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply, and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we... are the cure." - Agent Smith, "The Matrix"

Playing with Fire UK

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3449
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #329 on: August 26, 2017, 12:58:46 AM »
My theory is that some of this is due to the inability to search easily. People, particularly newbs, ask questions that have been thoroughly and even recently discussed. Costco membership, anyone?

I know ARS has posted a helpful tutorial, but the search function needs a working "Search" box, not a tutorial. OTOH, I am enormously grateful that this is a free, and moderated, site.

This. Especially as the search function shows no results, so leads the newbie to believe that there are no threads on this and they are the very first person here to have a question about (Costco, private school, charity, engagement rings etc). Would it be a quicker fix to have the tutorial pop up as the only search result every time?

marty998

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 7372
  • Location: Sydney, Oz
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #330 on: August 26, 2017, 02:05:15 AM »
I broke a urinal once, by using it incorrectly.  I didn't blame the urinal (no further details will be provided on this event).  I have made thousands of smoothies in <$10 used blenders and never burned one out.  You have to pulse, people.  Go to a JambaJuice sometime and watch how they do it.  Stop blaming the appliances for your appliance abuses.

Did you throw a blender at the urinal?

solon

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2359
  • Age: 1823
  • Location: OH
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #331 on: August 26, 2017, 04:40:23 AM »
My theory is that some of this is due to the inability to search easily. People, particularly newbs, ask questions that have been thoroughly and even recently discussed. Costco membership, anyone?

I know ARS has posted a helpful tutorial, but the search function needs a working "Search" box, not a tutorial. OTOH, I am enormously grateful that this is a free, and moderated, site.

This. Especially as the search function shows no results, so leads the newbie to believe that there are no threads on this and they are the very first person here to have a question about (Costco, private school, charity, engagement rings etc). Would it be a quicker fix to have the tutorial pop up as the only search result every time?

I think it would be awesome to replace the search box with a Google search box.

happy

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 9286
  • Location: NSW Australia
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #332 on: August 26, 2017, 05:56:11 AM »
Is it because there are a lot more newbies asking the stupid questions and the oldsters are fed up of answering the same damn things over and over again so it's only the semi-newbies who actually reply? I don't read case studies any more, I find them too annoying.

I'm guilty of this also. I tend to hang out mainly on journals of my choosing and avoid all the  "Can I have a...?". No , if you need to ask you can't have it. Also the forums have got so big I don't have time to read everything anymore.

One thing I've never understood is the American obsession with soft towels..." I tried line drying my washing but the towels were too stiff and hard, not all soft and fluffy like when I use the drier". Are you kidding me? And the poster always claims its their partner who is complaining.  I did tell one moaner he needed a thicker skin and received a very offensive reply.

Maybe as an act of service I need to venture forth and swing a few punches from time to time.

matchewed

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4422
  • Location: CT
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #333 on: August 26, 2017, 06:33:34 AM »
Regarding the is it mustachian to buy X? Let's see what five years ago said...

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/dear-mustachians-may-i-have-a-pony/

We have gone soft. We don't recommend DIY, or buy used, or go without. Instead we say spend to your values. It isn't just that, it's optimized spending to your values. People seem to miss the optimization bit.

Dicey

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 22319
  • Age: 66
  • Location: NorCal
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #334 on: August 26, 2017, 07:20:59 AM »
Regarding the is it mustachian to buy X? Let's see what five years ago said...

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/dear-mustachians-may-i-have-a-pony/

We have gone soft. We don't recommend DIY, or buy used, or go without. Instead we say spend to your values. It isn't just that, it's optimized spending to your values. People seem to miss the optimization bit.
Yesterday I responded to someone asking how to go about painting the exterior of his house. The day before I posted in the Thrift Store Finds thread. Not sure what part of the forum you're referring to. This place has gotten so big that perhaps it's some sort of selection bias that makes it seem things have gone soft to you. ("You" in this response refers to any forum reader who feels this way.)

When this forum was smaller, everyone was reading the same stuff. Now, there are so many choices that what you choose to read is strongly influenced by your own selections. Perhaps the more apt question is "Have You Gone Soft?"

If you don't want "soft", stop clicking on "soft" topics.

Here's a fun little trick I stumbled on one day when all the topics seemed stale. Choose someone you admire on the forum. Click on their user name. Select "Show Posts". Then look at their recent posts. You will be surprised at all the threads you haven't seen. Therefore, if you want more hard-core stuff to read, try following someone whose thinking is closer to your own. You are sure to find new threads that reinforce your particular convictions.

This is also a good way to find a thread you've commented on but can't find: click on your own name and follow your own tracks. 

BlueMR2

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2313
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #335 on: August 26, 2017, 09:12:32 AM »
Dude you're 47 not 87! You are in the prime of life and there's no reason you shouldn't be able to do most everything physical at your age (assuming no disability, illness or injuries). Lots of people on this forum didn't even discover fitness until their 40s or 50s and are now stronger, faster, more flexible, better endurance and healthier then many young 'uns half their age. Don't use age an excuse.

Going all the way back to this one...  I was feeling pretty rough by my late 30's.  I can personally vouch for adopting the way of the mustache to be very effective at getting me in better shape.  Things I struggled to do in my 30's I can now do barely breaking a sweat in my 40's!  I'd thought I was on my way to a knee replacement due to how much it hurt all the time.  Now it's perfectly fine.  My problem was lounging around in luxury.  Don't do that.  It's bad for the body!

FINate

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3114
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #336 on: August 26, 2017, 09:23:29 AM »
Dude you're 47 not 87! You are in the prime of life and there's no reason you shouldn't be able to do most everything physical at your age (assuming no disability, illness or injuries). Lots of people on this forum didn't even discover fitness until their 40s or 50s and are now stronger, faster, more flexible, better endurance and healthier then many young 'uns half their age. Don't use age an excuse.

Going all the way back to this one...  I was feeling pretty rough by my late 30's.  I can personally vouch for adopting the way of the mustache to be very effective at getting me in better shape.  Things I struggled to do in my 30's I can now do barely breaking a sweat in my 40's!  I'd thought I was on my way to a knee replacement due to how much it hurt all the time.  Now it's perfectly fine.  My problem was lounging around in luxury.  Don't do that.  It's bad for the body!

+1. Similar experience here.

SomedayStache

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 924
  • Live Long and Prosper
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #337 on: August 26, 2017, 10:33:25 AM »
I think the forums have certainly gotten softer.  They were getting softer a few years ago when I first felt like I could actually post something (as opposed to the lurking I'd previously done).

The MMM brand got big and then MMM himself stopped making regular blog posts, and the few recent blog posts are not the same type of worldview challenging topics that first drew me in.

The blog used to draw people to the forums but I wonder if now it's the forums themselves that bring people in.  At one point most posters probably had a rudimentary MMM education from reading the blog.  Now they may come in as uneducated masses?  And the rest of us are also bereft of regular new blog posts to keep our MMM values honed.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk


Optimiser

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 771
  • Age: 41
  • Location: PNW
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #338 on: August 26, 2017, 10:58:41 AM »
My theory is that some of this is due to the inability to search easily. People, particularly newbs, ask questions that have been thoroughly and even recently discussed. Costco membership, anyone?

I know ARS has posted a helpful tutorial, but the search function needs a working "Search" box, not a tutorial. OTOH, I am enormously grateful that this is a free, and moderated, site.
My theory is that the case study category attracts more newbs.  I begged for that topic, but after the mods created it, I hate it.  When I joined the forum, it took a while and all my guts to post my case study.  And I got ripped!  Nowadays, people don't get ripped because if they do, they just don't come back.

I just posted a case study and I would love it if you came and tore me apart. I promise I'll come back.

Kellie

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 22
  • Location: Winnipeg
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #339 on: August 26, 2017, 11:14:46 AM »
One thing I've never understood is the American obsession with soft towels..." I tried line drying my washing but the towels were too stiff and hard, not all soft and fluffy like when I use the drier". Are you kidding me? And the poster always claims its their partner who is complaining.  I did tell one moaner he needed a thicker skin and received a very offensive reply.

Ahhhh, the towels. How about the need to "soften" them even further with fabric softener? IMO slick, coated towels are NOT soft. Also not absorbent. And not fresh smelling, whatever the commercials may say.

BlueHouse

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4136
  • Location: WDC
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #340 on: August 26, 2017, 11:50:51 AM »
One thing I've never understood is the American obsession with soft towels..." I tried line drying my washing but the towels were too stiff and hard, not all soft and fluffy like when I use the drier". Are you kidding me? And the poster always claims its their partner who is complaining.  I did tell one moaner he needed a thicker skin and received a very offensive reply.

Ahhhh, the towels. How about the need to "soften" them even further with fabric softener? IMO slick, coated towels are NOT soft. Also not absorbent. And not fresh smelling, whatever the commercials may say.

I dislike soft, fluffy towels. I love thin, scratchy towels and love rubbing them against my skin because it feels like I'm exfoliating while drying off.  As long as they are absorbent, I love them.   If they're line-dried in the winter, even better.  I grew up with line-dried, ragged towels with strings hanging off them.  My towels now are still very thin, but they look much better.

GenXbiker

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 327
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #341 on: August 26, 2017, 12:29:52 PM »
I dislike soft, fluffy towels. I love thin, scratchy towels and love rubbing them against my skin because it feels like I'm exfoliating while drying off.

I'm the exact opposite.  I like big fluffy towels from the dryer and use fabric softener.  I've gotten stuck with those thin rough towels when staying somewhere else before - hate em.  I'll make my cuts elsewhere to get my 83% savings rate.

happy

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 9286
  • Location: NSW Australia
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #342 on: August 26, 2017, 05:14:31 PM »
I'm the exact opposite.  I like big fluffy towels from the dryer and use fabric softener.  I've gotten stuck with those thin rough towels when staying somewhere else before - hate em.  I'll make my cuts elsewhere to get my 83% savings rate.

Walks off, shaking head. (all the while resisting the temptation to make a generational dig)

scottish

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 2716
  • Location: Ottawa
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #343 on: August 26, 2017, 08:05:53 PM »
If you believe that humans are animals, and human life is not intrinsically worth more than the life of an animal then the death of more humans is probably a net moral benefit . . . and I'd suggest that the best course of action is probably somewhere between giving nothing and actively killing people.  (Every living human will likely cause the death of multiples of animals.)

"I’d like to share a revelation that I’ve had, during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you aren’t actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with its surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply, and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we... are the cure." - Agent Smith, "The Matrix"

I always thought that was a silly diatribe.   What do you think deer do in the absence of predators?

FINate

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3114
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #344 on: August 26, 2017, 11:44:28 PM »
If you believe that humans are animals, and human life is not intrinsically worth more than the life of an animal then the death of more humans is probably a net moral benefit . . . and I'd suggest that the best course of action is probably somewhere between giving nothing and actively killing people.  (Every living human will likely cause the death of multiples of animals.)

"I’d like to share a revelation that I’ve had, during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you aren’t actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with its surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply, and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we... are the cure." - Agent Smith, "The Matrix"

I always thought that was a silly diatribe.   What do you think deer do in the absence of predators?

And lemmings.: Lemming numbers, on the other hand, crash when they exhaust their plant food...this happens, say the researchers, because lemmings 'prey' upon moss. Moss regrows slowly, and so a horde of hungry lemmings can empty the larder in short order. And then hit the road in search of food.


Goldielocks

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 7062
  • Location: BC
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #345 on: August 26, 2017, 11:54:17 PM »
I always try to be kind and not dole out facepunches right, left and centre, and I do think that everyone not in debt should get a free pass on one thing. My husband buys a stupid amount of books that he could totally get from the library. Mine used to be clothes but I think it might now be food/the garden (intertwined because I grow many vegetables, but we also buy fancypants cheeses etc). But we don't spend unnecessary amounts of money on everything. I pack lunches. I cycle again now. We buy rice and dried beans. We're not big on travel. Also, I bought a huge bag of topsoil and moved the whole damn lot through to the back myself. I grow things from seed mostly rather than plug plants. My garden is not an unending stream of leaking money, I just recognise it as a want, not a need. So we've picked what really makes us happy and spend on that, and are frugal everywhere else.

If blending things is your one extravagance and you don't have any debt and have an emergency fund, whatever. Buy the multiple-hundred-dollar blender. But that is your one extravagance. Don't come crying about how you NEED a pumped-up SUV for safeteeeey, or a huge wardrobe for wooooork, or takeaway for nutritiiiiiooon. No, you picked blending things. Go and cycle, thrift shop and soak your beans.

Here's the thing -- the person posting about the blender / car / fancy pants thing is generally not the debt free, have a stash, about to FIRE person.  Once in a while someone posts to ask if X is high quality before a purchase, but not about whether they can afford it...

e.g.,  I bet you, yourself, have bought something frivolous in the past 2 years and never mentioned it here, because it was something you could totally afford and not worthy of this forum to post about...

WhiteTrashCash

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1983
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #346 on: August 27, 2017, 01:09:28 AM »
One of the most annoying trends is when newbies come and say that they are 27 years old with a stache of $1.2 million and they are about to inherit $500,000 from their grandmother and their question is "How am I doing?" Go somewhere else to fish for praise. Nobody wants that shit here.

boarder42

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 9332
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #347 on: August 27, 2017, 11:40:37 AM »
No the MOST annoying thing is people paying down mortgages.  And a whole thread dedicated to it.

Bracken_Joy

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 8927
  • Location: Oregon
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #348 on: August 27, 2017, 12:04:38 PM »
I will say, those who think the whole forum has gone soft- help on the damn case studies then. There's like 3 of us that reply. I literally keep a file of useful links for them. Do I always love answering questions about  the same like 4 scenarios that get posted? No. But people always feel like their numbers are unique, and their situation is unique, and want unique answers. Even if it's the same links I give everyone else, it's on their thread, and so they're more likely to pay attention.

If you think the forums have gone soft, then don't isolate yourself on the threads that are purely theoretical in nature or later in the "saving cycle", and venture out into the posts by newcomers. Aka, don't complain about it if you aren't going to do anything to change it and shape it.

Dicey

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 22319
  • Age: 66
  • Location: NorCal
Re: Weird fourm coversations - has the community gone soft?
« Reply #349 on: August 27, 2017, 12:49:04 PM »
No, the MOST annoying thing is people paying down mortgages who should be killing other debt first or contributing more to their retirement and investment accounts.
There. FTFY.