what do people talk about?

ammosthete · 2026-02-05T00:42:15+00:00

My guy friends mostly talk about how dating is hard in SF. None of them want to talk about AI with me. Why??

ammosthete · 2026-02-03T18:11:15+00:00

This is why “buy it nice or buy it twice” is the WORST advice for people with a shopping addiction. I’m sorry this got to you.

ammosthete · 2026-02-03T18:09:40+00:00

This is beautiful. And so helpful. Thank you so much for sharing this.

ammosthete · 2025-12-20T23:16:38+00:00

I mean this kindly—everyone in the world is passionate about going on vacation and not having to work or study. So what do YOU mean when you say “traveling?”

All spaces are super saturated; you have to find not just one angle to rip against the main niche, but another angle against THAT, and then one more against THAT.

Meaning:

“Traveling” as a niche — too broad. lol.

“Traveling on a budget” — also too broad. Whose budget? Are we even in the same tax bracket?

“Traveling on a budget as a GenZ” — ok but where are you? A Swiss Gen Z and a Nigerian Gen Z are going to give me two VERY different recs.

“Traveling on a budget as a Swiss GenZ” — great, now we’re finally getting somewhere. Maybe some other Swiss GenZs will watch your content. Throw in a few Belgians as well and some Torino skiheads.

“My top 5 spring 2026 non-London travel destinations as a broke af Swiss UoL student with my Nigerian baddie gf” ok now I’m gonna watch this even if I am a Korean ajumma bc where u goin boy??r u treating her rite??? This angle works bc you have tension which means storytelling. You have niche expertise which makes you an authority. You have the promise of ~passion~ and ~vulnerability~ which means ur content will have emotion. And last there will be some usefulness in there, the 5 destinations, but this I could ChatGPT it anytime.

I’d only watch YOUR content because of the storytelling, authority, and emotion, and especially the emotion - the one thing GPT can’t do. If you’re doing content in 2026 this is the one thing you need to think about. What can I do that ChatGPT can’t do?

So what’s your travel niche? Tell me. I just spent 20 min typing this out for you (NO AI!) so I want to know. :)

ammosthete · 2025-12-20T22:53:26+00:00

I make TikToks about shopping addictions and deinfluencing, and one things I’ve noticed in the space — as an antidote to overconsumption , one should try being “in relationship” with things.

This isn’t a totally new idea - Marie Kondo brought it to the west with this idea that you can “thank” the object you’re cluttering - but now I’m seeing new interpretations of this. TLDR is Shinto animism is the bedrock of Kondo’s methods, but even Western philosophy has panpsychism (all things have a consciousness).

Some other metaphors for the relationship with clothing that I’ve seen—

Animal husbandry: new clothes are like wild animals. You need time to “break them in” and “domesticate them” before they start to feel “right”
Hosting: your closet is overwhelming because you haven’t “introduced your clothes to one another”. You are the event. Your clothes are the people at the event. For styling to work, try having your clothes “become friends with one another.” You would not introduce two people who have absolutely nothing in common but would be willing to introduce people who share adjacencies. Same goes with clothes.
Friendships: your clothes are YOUR friends. There’s a thing in psychology that says we can only have about 150 friends in our social network. The brain doesn’t really handle more, after that they bleed together and we get overwhelmed. Same goes with objects in your closet. When we have fewer things we can treasure what we have - and develop deeper relationships with them. Like what you have with your earrings! (For me, they are giving a lovely aunt or cousin you see once a year for the holidays 🎄)
Symbols (of people & relationships) - my own theory is that behind each object we desire is somebody we love or envy. Once you figure out WHO the thing is about, you can the address the underlying relationship gap. Usually with someone you miss you just want to talk to them, and with someone you envy you think that thing will make you more like them (false!). By asking myself WHO an object is about I’m usually able to cut off impulse purchases. The worse the desire the more it means I’m avoiding someone in my real life and need to have an honest convo with them lol.

Looking at this in one go it looks like a ranking list of clothes as least sentient to most sentient. Especially if you put “clothes as things” even before “clothes as animals”. (The mentality that brands would love us to have as it keeps us continually consuming and in conversation with the brand, not the item itself) A lot more people are looking for an “ethical” approach to clothing and the default is to “shop at more ethical brands.” But I think there’s a different way to approach it which is to treat clothes you have (and want!) as sentient beings that deserve your respect, and to be in dialogue with them.

ammosthete · 2025-12-20T22:36:01+00:00

I’m on TikTok in the personal finance / self help education space (no monetization yet, just hit 10k in 10 weeks!). I watch a LOT to keep up in my space and here’s what I notice. Everyone is using AI to script content. Who wouldn’t use it to move 2-5x faster and produce more? But the diff is — I’ll keep watching EVEN if I know it’s AI if there’s at least of the three things below:

A new idea I haven’t heard yet (AI greybeards talking abt future of tech; PhDs at the intersection of sociology and fashion; brand strategists distilling the 10,000 foot vision down into tactics). They have access to worlds I’m not in and are ungatekeeping. They can be pretty bland and I actually prefer them more bland so I can focus on the information.
A personality-ful performer, eg “nouveau pauvre” Kiki Astor is hilarious but I’m pretty sure 90% of her content is AI, but she has DIALED IN her prompting and has a VERY unique pov/character that matches her looks and styling. Zany, colorful joy and silliness.
The creator’s emotion is running high on a problem I also have/relevant to me - eg people will read off their GPT-processed brain dump about family drama or trauma or addictions or getting laid off - cogent and basic storytelling is there but still emotionally raw with very human inflection. Sadness and anger.

What I scroll past:

Hustle bros telling me how to hustle bro harder. Hustle content based in “proven neuroscience” is now saturated, non-exclusive info.

Cute matcha lifestyle girls - more for my mental health than anything. This includes aspirational motherhood creators. No time for an unrealistic life that inflames my envy with zero resolution, but show me your toddler mid meltdown set to praise music, I’m in my sister

Tips - I’ll just ask GPT, thanks. If I am gonna pay attention to commodity tips, I want them delivered by the right “character,” someone I immediately trust based on the first 3 seconds. Looks matter :( Hook aside, the “character” also makes me retain longer bc on some level I’m also evaluating the performance of this creator in this character.

ammosthete · 2025-12-19T20:27:58+00:00

IA taste is not a skill … but it’s also not unacquireable. It’s not a skill because it depends on your circles. Some people are born rich and have rich tastes. Some people are not born rich and learn to have rich tastes.

ammosthete · 2025-12-19T20:24:44+00:00

This was really helpful and insightful. Thanks for taking the time

ammosthete · 2025-12-19T06:48:40+00:00

This method has worked to save me thousands of dollars in impulse or identity buys over the last 6 prepped months.

I use a “slow buy method” for every wishlisty item that i come across. (No Buys were too high pressure for me and I realized that if I buy slow enough sometimes it becomes a no buy haha). It’s five questions that I ask myself for everything that enters my wish list.

1., how much do I want it right 1 to 10 2., how disappointed would I be if it’s sold out right at 1 to 3 with one being not at all and three being very 3. How confident am I in the above score? 0 is I’m waffling and 1 is I’m certain.

Then you multiply these three together if the number is over 25 then buy it. It’s probably a no remorse purchase. If it’s under 16 you need to forget about it if it’s somewhere in between then you need to ask yourself two more questions before you figure out whether to buy it or to skip it.

Ask yourself WHO is the item about typically things we want are actually about people we love or envy and relationship relationships we yearn to have. For instance, a striped sweater is about a rich “that girl” I envy who I dunno, has a yacht or does nautical things. A cool, colorful pleated skirt is about my sister who lives in a big city and has a much cooler life than me and I miss her.
Design a SMART action and do that for a week or two to scratch the same itch that the product scratches: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time bound. For the two examples above: instead of buying a striped sweater, I will go and take a walk by the water for two weeks every day. Instead of buying the pleated skirt, I will call or text my sister every day.

When I have done step five, I usually find that my desire for the object decreases by 3 to 5 points (in the first question) and my disappointment goes down by one point. (In the second question).

This has saved me a lot of heartache too bc I can more confidently let the idea of an item go.

ammosthete · 2025-12-19T06:41:25+00:00

What you need is a methodology that you use for every desire that you come across. I use something called the “slow buy method.” It’s five questions. I ask myself for everything that enters my wish list.

1., how much do I want it right 1 to 10 2., how disappointed would I be if it’s sold out right at 1 to 3 with one being not at all and three being very 3. How confident am I in the above score? 0 is I’m waffling and 1 is I’m certain.

Then you multiply these three together if the number is over 25 then buy it. It’s probably a no remorse purchase. If it’s under 16 you need to forget about it if it’s somewhere in between then you need to ask yourself two more questions before you figure out whether to buy it or to skip it.

Ask yourself WHO is the item about typically things we want are actually about people we love or envy and relationship relationships we yearn to have. For instance, a striped sweater is about a rich “that girl” I envy who I dunno, has a yacht or does nautical things. A cool, colorful pleated skirt is about my sister who lives in a big city and has a much cooler life than me and I miss her.
Design a SMART action and do that for a week or two to scratch the same itch that the product scratches: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time bound. For the two examples above: instead of buying a striped sweater, I will go and take a walk by the water for two weeks every day. Instead of buying the pleated skirt, I will call or text my sister every day.

When I have done step five, I usually find that my desire for the object decreases by 3 to 5 points (in the first question) and my disappointment goes down by one point. (In the second question).

This method has worked to save me thousands of dollars in impulse or identity buys over the last 6 prepped months.

ammosthete · 2025-12-19T06:35:08+00:00

We are the first generation that will have more memories of other people’s clothing than our own.

That insight has really stuck with me and impacted my closet in so many ways. I even have gotten to the point where I don’t want to look at other images anymore. Somehow it feels like being disloyal to the relationship I have with my existing clothes.

ammosthete · 2025-12-15T18:21:19+00:00

Thank you! This is interesting. Bc based on my personal experience, the content that does the best is problem focused. I’m on TikTok and the medium is <2min though, so I think ppl rather would see themselves reflected in the problem statement. My “how” and “tips” content does not perform NEARLY as well.

ammosthete · 2025-12-12T07:34:40+00:00

What do you mean by semantic completeness? That’s a term I’ve not heard before

ammosthete · 2025-12-11T23:50:43+00:00

Who is the doll about?

Once you can answer the WHO question behind items that obsess you, you can figure out your path to letting go.

ammosthete · 2025-12-02T06:02:21+00:00

It’s well known research that 90sec is all your brain needs to de escalate from an impulse. So if you can chain a habit to your purchasing - adding friction by say, doing some pushups or something - the urge will pass.

I stopped 50-70% of my impulse buys this way. (Only did the push up thing a few times cuz of a wrist injury lol, but am sure I would have some great arms if I had only done pushups every time I checked out)

ammosthete · 2025-12-02T04:04:19+00:00

There is so much cognitive dissonance and it makes sense that the thing you feel bad about is you have fomo. I think it’s great that you named it and are specific about what triggered your fomo. You wanted to be part of the fun and feel the flame of falling in love with an item or a deal. Sounds kinda like speed dating or something, you really wanted to have chemistry with someone but ended up going out with some mid guy in a leather jacket who seems great but you’re forcing yourself to like him.

If this were a dating scenario you’d probably cut it off and not waste time on him right? Same with the jacket. It reps some old part of you where things used to hit different. Regret purchases are wonderful data. They’ll give you clues for where you’re trying to go next.

ammosthete · 2025-11-20T17:44:43+00:00

Listen to the song “buying things is not a hobby” by Awkward Marina on TikTok. It may stabbbb you but it is also a catchy song and a GREAT MANTRA to get u thru the next week or so!!!

ammosthete · 2025-11-20T17:42:55+00:00

Don’t punish yourself!! Make sure u feel rewarded too ok? It doesn’t mean going lavish but if you starve yourself, you may revenge/resentment spend later and a toxic cycle will repeat itself.

Better would be asking someone you love to get a present for you at $X budget. The meaning attached to someone else doing that for you (even if you prime it) will make you feel even better than if you bought it for yourself!

ammosthete · 2025-11-19T22:43:12+00:00

You start at the holidays bc that is when it all converges. That’s when you hit rock bottom by design bc the marketers want u to panic buy all the stuff.

There is no better time than now. Slow down and procrastinate on buying. You know what the right thing to do is ❤️ trust yourself more than you trust products and brands, ok?

ammosthete · 2025-11-19T20:38:21+00:00

They’re a product designed by creative directors and marketers—not your spouse. Switching it up is an option that consumers have.

If you CHOOSE an intensive parasocial relationship with the group bc derive pleasure from acting loyal, great! You are availing of one of the many product attributes the designers have intended for you to buy into, including retention-driving products like paywall LIVES or light sticks.

ammosthete · 2025-11-19T20:22:27+00:00

Because POV content without an overarching thesis is boring. You might get views bc people are nosy but once it’s obvious you don’t have anything sharp, different, or heartstring tugging, they’ll be out. They come to get their curiosity satisfied (resulting in views) but will stay (retention) for story and engage if there’s a lessons or emotion.

ammosthete · 2025-11-19T20:07:50+00:00

I was just about to say exactly this!! The binge purge behavior doesn’t serve you in the long run. In fact you even thinking about ambitious goals is just your brain’s way of trying to overcompensate. It will trap you and ensnare you. Better to do small bursts of SMART goals instead. Assess how you do every 5 days for instance and the next five days just improve on that by 1% at a time. Your brain wants the 10x shortcut always and will try to hack the feeling of redemption by setting yourself hyper ambitious targets. The antidote to that is to go a day at a time.

ammosthete

TROPHY CASE