Comment by paulcole

I feel as if you're exactly the opposite of me. This feels, to me, like such an upside down, back-to-front position.

If I need to buy something new in order feel like I'm having 'fun', then I try to ask 'why' as many times as necessary to work out what hole I'm actually trying to fill, or what scratch I'm trying to itch. There are a couple of second hand items I want to buy off Gumtree, but I have no immediate need for them, they'd be for some future situation that's more likely than not to be only theoretical. Knowing that they are there, available, makes me want them, rather than some actual existing purpose.

> to find out about new things to buy.

I would interpret this as "to find out why I should feel unhappy and empty that I don't own these things".

On things that look nice, yes, I've got some nice art, but there's a limited amount of space in which to put up nice looking things, and if you're buying them frequently then you're either throwing out a lot or you're having to store a lot. Additionally, I don't think I've ever seen anything that looks remotely nice advertised on the Internet; or at least looks nice and isn't, in actuality, mass-produced shit that's been polished up.

Having said that, if I had more money to throw away I'd do up my study like an old-school English manor-house library, full matching bookshelves, wainscoting, desk and chair. That's purely 'looks nice' and I would throw away the patchwork that currently furnishes my study. I'll say that's been advertised to me through (un)intentional 'product placement' in movies and TV shows, rather than Internet advertising though.

I am a basic human being, however.

Exactly. Good ads are a service to me that inform me of things I want to buy. They aren't tricking me into buying stuff. Sometimes I see an ad and immediately believe the product would improve my life and it does.

I think the problem with HN/Engineer types is they basically never see ads designed to appeal to them because they aren't a large enough audience.

Are you okay with google tracking everything you do to serve you more specific ads?

To me that's like living in a transparent house where your landlord can always watch you but it's fine because you really like the nice showerhead.

It's kind of amusing to me how such an obvious statement like this is getting downvoted so much. I suspect most people feel this way about ads and HN readers are more bothered by them than most people.

(I hate ads too, but I think I understand the alternative perspective).