Comment by rconti | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rconti | Hacker News Reader

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This reminds of a Business 101 professor (former tech CEO) that I had in college. He liked to survey Freshman on their preferences. I don't remember the category precisely, but he was visibly taken aback and commented that "McDonalds" had never NOT been the #1 in one of the Freshman preference categories (I'm guessing it was for "favorite fast food", but I can't remember precisely). This struck me as a great way to keep a pulse on the market.

I bet he'd pick up the diamond trend if that was in his survey!

I got married a few years back, both of us in our mid 30s. I never intended to buy a diamond, and instead bought a sapphire engagement ring. Interestingly, it wasn't until AFTER we got engaged that I found out/realized that both her mother AND grandmother wore sapphire rings. Her 100 year old grandmother had been married multiple times, but her last and favorite engagement ring was a sapphire, despite having certainly received plenty of diamonds throughout her lifetime.

> "McDonalds" had never NOT been the #1 in one of the Freshman preference categories

The Beloit Mindset List annually captures the changing worldview of younger generations.

http://themindsetlist.com/2017/08/beloit-college-mindset-lis...

Great resource! Thanks!

Aside: Good God that list is cringy!

What it really puts into perspective is,

Fifty years from now, student loan derivatives will be the largest asset class, you'll be worried about teenagers spongling each other on the lacework, and you'll read an article about the graduating generation and find it pretty insightful.

Some of the list is applicable to people born from the start of 90s. Still cool, though

I was born in the early 80s and still have no idea what that westinghouse W radio thing is all about.

I was born in the early 70s and I have no idea either.

My bride wanted sapphire because she knew I was convinced of the evil history of diamond. 10 years later she demanded a big diamond to replace it and I realized she'd been seething all those years but compromised because she was playing the long game our marriage.

Sapphire is something you buy in bulk, in sheets, tubes, rods, or bar stock.[1] Every scanner window at Home Depot is a sheet of sapphire. You can drag steel tools across those all day for years without much effect.

[1] https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/synthetic+sapphire.html

That's too bad that she may have not been upfront with you from the onset :(

Crazy... So did the salesman at the jewelry store go into a whole speech about the "5 C's" of diamonds? (Clarity, carats, etc.) Can't believe how quickly he disappeared when I told him "oh sorry I'm not interested in a diamond."

Haha sounds about right!

This is precisely why I purchased my wife a diamond, it was worth every penny, I think she was proud of it for years, always showing it off. It’s not my place to judge her, it made her happy, feel loved and validated, and that was more valuable than the money.

The key is to buy wholesale online or you’ll get totally ripped off, the markups at places like Tiffany’s or Bloomjngdales are outrageous and are the biggest reason diamonds have poor resale value. You wouldn’t buy gold at a 10x markup but that’s precisely what people do with diamonds for some reason. Also don’t buy a diamond on credit, my wife and I had significant savings and no debt so it wasn’t like the diamond hurt our finances.

Of course everyone is entitled to get whatever stone (or no stone) they want! Diamonds seem to be falling out of favor so the article above doesn’t surprise me. I would put some blame on the diamond industry being too greedy, selling at outrageous markups and telling everyone a proper diamond should be “X months salary” where X has gone up by 1 every decade.

This is great. Use the same reasoning to get your wife to buy you a new Corvette C8. Tell her you need it to feel loved and validated, and that it's more valuable than the money. You will be proud of it for years and always show it off. It's not her place to judge you, it made you happy. She needs to spend at least 1 yearly wage on the car or else she doesn't love you.

She spent 9 months being pregnant with my daughter and suffered through labor, that’s more than a fair trade.

You spent those 9 months presumably working and taking care of her. That's more than a fair trade.

It is a common understanding throughout the history that women think it is not a fair trade, it is also the case that many men seem to think the women have it harder in the pregnancy period as easy as they may or may not be accused of having it otherwise. Therefore I think you need to add more of an argument for why it should be a fair trade, probably difficult given that when you are taken care of someone (unless in the Pulp Fiction manner) you are doing so because they have it significantly worse than you do.

what? whos worse? its 2 people busy with different things. thats why its a fair trade. its teamwork.

It's hard to imagine someone saying this if they've ever taken care of a pregnant woman all the way to term. Yes, it's teamwork, but the man gets the better end of the deal and it's not even close.

My wife bore us 7 children, but I still totally disagree with your argument.

What do you disagree with exactly?

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