 Poster: A snowHead
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| philwig wrote: |
| boarder2020 wrote: |
| ... Most people have a laptop that's completely overkill for their needs. Nobody needs a car that does silly speeds or has crazy acceleration. 99% of people don't need their speced out goretex jacket. ... To be fair to cyclists it's a sport where you can buy performance. ... maybe they can justify the cost. |
If think most people don't buy these things for the reasons you're assuming there.
My car does silly speeds and has crazy acceleration. It exists to demonstrate I'm no longer poor, not to compete with boy racers.
"Performance" is only relevant because it costs a lot of money to own it: it's not what you're really buying.
I think skiing and cycling are both a bit different, but that's an easy example to illustrate the basic point. |
But certain things in common - there's a certain status to holdiaying in VDI or Courchevel over say Risoul. The whole business model of Strava is built on "showing off" over and above "training aid".
None of it is really different from any other form of consumer goods. Is a Smeg objectively better than a Bosch? Or just more desirable and higher status?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I bought an unnecessarily nice carbon road bike because I thought it was a beautiful machine. Both the bike and art budgets were involved. At the time, the feather weight was new and intoxicating, and 16 years later it still is. I just wish my neck wasn't 16 years older....
As an aside, there is a fantastic engineering parable that works in many contexts, but using bikes is very understandable:
You can have any two of lighter, stronger or cheaper, but you cannot have all three.
strong and cheap? then its heavy
strong and light? then its expensive
light and cheap? then it won't last
I'll wager lunch that a certain someone will try and shoot this down, I'll tell you if my guess is correct!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| philwig wrote: |
| boarder2020 wrote: |
| ... Most people have a laptop that's completely overkill for their needs. Nobody needs a car that does silly speeds or has crazy acceleration. 99% of people don't need their speced out goretex jacket. ... To be fair to cyclists it's a sport where you can buy performance. ... maybe they can justify the cost. |
If think most people don't buy these things for the reasons you're assuming there.
My car does silly speeds and has crazy acceleration. It exists to demonstrate I'm no longer poor, not to compete with boy racers.
"Performance" is only relevant because it costs a lot of money to own it: it's not what you're really buying.
I think skiing and cycling are both a bit different, but that's an easy example to illustrate the basic point. |
I'm glad my self confidence is not so low I have to overcompensate with an expensive car 
Weathercam, I suspect a lot of those millions have a Strava account, but don't really use it (id be an example - I just use it as an intermediary to get data from watch to intervals.icu). I'm not sure millions of users means people aren't using it to show off in some way. Look at apps like Instagram - millions of users showing off in some way.
Imo Strava is all about racing and competition, but perhaps you have a different view. There will always be an element of "showing off" in that. For the pros it's part of developing their brand and getting more sponsorship.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Scooter in Seattle wrote: |
I bought an unnecessarily nice carbon road bike because I thought it was a beautiful machine. Both the bike and art budgets were involved. At the time, the feather weight was new and intoxicating, and 16 years later it still is. I just wish my neck wasn't 16 years older....
As an aside, there is a fantastic engineering parable that works in many contexts, but using bikes is very understandable:
You can have any two of lighter, stronger or cheaper, but you cannot have all three.
strong and cheap? then its heavy
strong and light? then its expensive
light and cheap? then it won't last
I'll wager lunch that a certain someone will try and shoot this down, I'll tell you if my guess is correct! |
How could anyone argue with the truth? 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Sharkymark, since when has that stopped anybody? 
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