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Comment by mbesto | Hacker News Reader

In case anyone wants an easy way of understanding what Pinterest is and why it's so popular with women, I urge you to find one of those cheesy women's magazines (Cosmo will do) and flip through it. You will most certainly find a page that looks like this: http://www.zatchels.com/press/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Wom...

Pinterest is a digital representation of exactly that page, but now anyone can be the curator (not just Cosmo) and more importantly, it has the ability to make the buying process more frictionless. You want the hat, sunglasses, and skirt? Great, just click the button and buy.

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While that's part of the attraction, I think to really understand Pinterest you should probably understand three use cases: why you'd curate, why you'd care about what an actual friend curated, and why you'd care about what a stranger curated. It's the interaction between these three which causes Pinterest to spread like wildfire.

A bridal magazine curated by your bff is not just a bridal magazine.

We're tearing our kitchen down to the studs and building a ridiculous new one. Erin's been pasting details up on Pinterest, and sharing them with some of our friends who are also interested in stuff like this; just that casual sharing has generated purchases.

I think people really underestimate the impact of purchase intent, and overestimate the impact of value propositions that work with women.

And to go along with patio's thesis, would it be fair to say Erin (I assume your wife?) enjoys being the one giving the "editor tips"?

No; she's not curating for friends, she's just using it as a pasteboard to collect ideas. But even without the intent to curate a collection for others to view, the purchase influence was there, and strong.

Ah yes, Erin. Everyone knows Erin.

Wha? It's not obvious? Be nice.

"...to the studs"

Even though I would have wanted a new kitchen as well I would have negotiated with my wife to allow me to spend some of the money from selling my company (you know what I'm referring to) on a fast car or other similar toy while she was distracted with the joy of the new kitchen. And before the bathroom is torn up down to the studs.

We both enjoy cooking more than we enjoy fast cars. Also, I did the fast car thing after the last sale I was a part of; never again.

I had a fast car sold it and bought another when they re-did the model.

That said it provides no where near the enjoyment that playing with computers does or negotiation (which is fun and a game for me). Both I never get tired of. Had a boat for years but I would get bored if I used it more than every week or two. (Sold that). I'm renting out a vacation place since I only used it twice over the summer. Same thing tired of it at this point.

I get more thrill out of writing a shell script that automates something than from driving the car.

But people who see the car (especially younger guys on the way up) think it's the greatest thing in the world.

The best I can do with it on the local road is say hang at 15mph and take it to 75 which gives perhaps 2 to 2.5 seconds of thrill. (Not going to go from a dead start and burn the clutch or wear tires or anything). Once at 75 you are done. I could take it to a track but that is miles away and well I don't want to put to many miles on the car.

Come to think of it cooking is more fun as well.

I enjoyed the hell out my car the year I bought it, but then every other year, all I could think about was how much better successive years models were; it was unhealthy.

Reminds me of a convo with one of my very best friends..

Him: "You live in San Francisco. What do you need a car for?"

Me: "Loving, mostly."

I get more enjoyment out of having and caring for and loving the car than driving it. But that sort of love does diminish when I start to covet other models or newer model years.

It's like an infographic crossed with consumer reports crossed with a best practices post... I had wondered about the value of pages like this in magazines, but if you swap out women's blazers with say iPhone docks, I suddenly see the crack-like appeal of pages like this. Come to think of it, I seem to recall Popular Mechanics having a similar spread for power screwdrivers!

Wired has exactly that in every issue.

That's a great example that you gave actually. The person who creates a site that allows people to do exactly that (construct outfits just like that sample shown) will have a possible winner on their hands. Not that I play it (I'm not into sports) but I'd imagine a site like that is a bit like fantasy football in appeal.

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