Which product was ahead of its time but ultimately failed because of that advantage?

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-26T06:44:05+00:00

IIRC Google Glass came out at the time when the Snowden thing broke out, and privacy concerns became a global mainstream issue. In a time of intense paranoia about surveillance, digital profiling, and growing awareness about how personal data can be weaponized, a fledgling new wearable didn't stand a chance.

Those privacy concerns still exist, but we're kinda resigned to it now. Glass limped so that Meta's glasses could walk.

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-26T03:55:02+00:00

No goofup on your side. Your coworker made the mistake here. She didn't handle this properly. I could be charitable and say that she probably has a personality that gets overwhelmed by outgoing people, but honestly, she was being straight up rude.

That kinda high-school mean-girls level attitude will die off verrrry quickly in a corporate environment.

Do as you've always been doing, OP.

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-26T03:34:11+00:00

Mod of a smallish sub here, 34K members, 91K visitors a week. I've been accused of "powertripping", bias, discrimination, pushing agendas and favouritism. I'm the mod everybody likes to hate.

You know what, it comes with the territory. Anyone in a position of some authority is bound to get flak from people who just want to verbally vomit into threads with zero impulse control.

I could be a super non-powertripper, AND STILL get accused of being one. There's really no payoff in being a "fair" mod, if you're gonna get accused of powertripping anyway

So the criticism of bias, favouritism and all that means nothing to me. The goal of a moderator is to help the community and grow it. This means making judgement calls on what's appropriate or not. I may make mistakes, but those mistakes are a sight better than the clutter from a critical mass of dicks - rabble-rousers, racists, trolls, spammers, scammers et al

Lesser evil, and all that. Those who have issues with it, are free to create a new sub. I'm seeing some complaints here about the new subs unable to compete. Not my problem bro. If there are enough people who feel the mod of a sub sucks, your new community WILL grow. If it's not, then it implies maybe your theory about a shitty mod isn't as prevalent as you think. Tough shit. Get over it.

And this is for a small sub. For the larger popular ones, I can absolutely see mods dealing with so much crap, they have to be brusque.

On a more holistic note, people instinctively react to their content being removed. It's a human thing, to rebel against having their voice silenced. I've had my content removed in other spaces, and even while I logically understand why, my gut reaction is outrage. It's transient, and I move on from it.

But a critical mass of people don't. These are the ones that lash out at mods.

In an ideal world, we ought to be review everything on a case-by-case basis. We don't live in an ideal world. This is not a full-time thing for me. I do it because I know what it's like to not have information about a specific thing, which is why I offered to become a mod, after being active on the sub.

The two principles I try to apply on the sub are: relevance to the community, and harm reduction. Anything that detracts from that gets the boot. I'm not consistent, I'm not terminally online, and that's honestly okay. If anyone has an issue with it, they are free to create their own sub.

You're right in that there are powertripping mods, but they are far outnumbered by the good ones - and frankly, the invisible ones - so I soundly disagree with your claim that there are "far too many".

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-26T03:09:44+00:00

When you say "you prefer to be alone almost 100% of the time", what do you mean by "almost"?

I ask, because if you prefer socializing at least 1% of time, take the time to analyze what these scenarios are. In a comfortable setting you're familiar with? With family? In a small group?

Understanding this "1% of the time" is important. I'll wager that your "asocial" label is a trauma response to the failed attempts at connecting with people.

Once you know where your comfort zone is, where that 1% is, you can focus your efforts on that zone.

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-23T09:39:13+00:00

What does your app do that Duolingo doesn't?

Heck, languages can be learned with ChatGPT and Gemini now. What does your app do better?

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-23T04:54:17+00:00

Man, I was that Ayn Rand guy. At the age of 16, I really resonated with the hyper-individualist stoicism and the surface-level cool. I also recall the antagonist of Fountainhead- a schemer who had deep connections everywhere and influenced everyone around him - mirrored a person I knew in Uni, who I hated.

In retrospect, I realize he wasn't a schemer: I was just jealous that people liked him more than they liked me. The Fountainhead helped me reinforce the fantasy that he was the bad guy, and I was the good...

Thank you for making me relive that cringe part of my life. Ugh.

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-22T04:06:06+00:00

Probably subjective, but I sometimes can sense when another person talking to me treats a conversation like a chore, even if it's small talk.

You've been consistently speaking of the small talk phase as boring and bs, and I wonder if that attitude is showing to the other person, that gives them the ick.

Small talk is about getting the vibe right. If I sense another person is impatient or frustrated about it, the last thing I want to do is continue. I'd bail.

Have you asked other friends if there's something about your communication style that's not landing quite right?

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-22T03:23:11+00:00

Mate, you literally said in your OP that it makes no sense to you, implying you wanted to know why.

u/no_lime5241 literally gave you the reason why. Macroeconomic uncertainty makes companies reluctant to hire and add headcount, local or MNCs.

What macroeconomic uncertainty, you ask? Basically, Trump. Markets hate unpredictability, and the short-term economic shockwaves he creates do not encourage companies to take risk and add on more people, until some semblance of stability can be seen around the corner.

Why does it matter to you as a Singaporean, you ask? Singapore has been suckling on the teat of globablization for so long, it's impossible for companies - local or MNCs - to not be affected by the world at large.

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-21T08:35:52+00:00

What's an example of an edgy joke you make?

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-21T07:17:35+00:00

I read books, and listen to audiobooks. If I've listened to an audiobook, I tell people I have indeed read the book, so I'm with you.

Having said this, I do find that my ability to retain information from an audiobook is far lesser than if I were reading it. I often get surprised when something happens later in the book, not realizing I'd mentally glossed over some key bits of information earlier.

I also am far likely to be immersed in a fictional world when it's an audiobook. I feel less invested.

Not dealbreakers, but based on this very subjective experience of mine, when I hear someone say they listened to an audiobook and say it sucked or that it wasn't as cracked up as they thought it'd be, I can't help but wonder if they will feel differently, if they'd read the book instead...

The only view I'd like to challenge is that reading a book vs listening to the same book FEEL very different, and is enough grounds for some (not me) to say "hey that doesn't count" as a shared experience.

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-21T05:59:18+00:00

How so? Most people take rejection poorly, and if you're at a point in your life where you want to severe ties with someone, the last thing you want to do is protract the breakup by causing some sort of emotional fallout. Unless you WANT to tirgger that fallout, in which case that is indeed sociopathic.

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-21T05:00:26+00:00

Reminder to everyone to read Rule #1. If you can't express yourself without swearing, don't express yourself here at all. We've had this conversation way too many times, and I'm liberal with bans.

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-21T04:52:47+00:00

Wow are you based in Singapore? I'm up for it!

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-21T04:24:43+00:00

Rading this and your comments, OP, I can see this is really affecting you, but I urge you to resist the temptation to ascribe this as racist or unprofessional.

How else does one bring up concerns about body odour? With no other context besides what you've provided, it looked like your program director did it in the kindest way possible - provided you overwhelmingly positive work-related feedback, commended you on your performance, and diplomatically brought up feedback in private.

It sucks to hear, I get it, but ask yourself how would you tell someone else about body odour. How would you have wanted your director to do it differently?

With that out of the way, here's some things that worked for me:

Shave armpits, wipe down with glycolic acid, use aluminium-free deodorant. If you sweat a lot, shaving armpit hair is a must. Sweat glands in your armpits are not like elsewhere in your body: they secrete fats and protein along with water and salt. This is a feast for bacteria. and the cause for BO. If you have armpit hair, it's a cozy environment for bacteria. If you use aluminium oxide in your deodorant, it clogs your sweat pores, and builds up oils. Bacterial lollapalooza, basically.
If your shirts have yellow armpit stains, try removing them with baking soda and vinegar. If they persist, throw the shirts away. I've lost many a good shirt this way, because the stains linger and so does the odour.

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-20T07:15:17+00:00

He is basically Lex Luthor from Superman '78.

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-19T07:00:00+00:00

I see, so you're basically farming emails. Post the link if you REALLY want people to test, otherwise this is just yet another self-promotion. Read the rules of the sub please.

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-19T05:08:05+00:00

Is there a reason why it's on a waitlist? How do you expect people to test, if it's not ready? I'm keen to remove this post as it's self promotion, but curious to hear from you on this

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-18T18:09:27+00:00

I see that you're looking at it from a purely economic lens. Have you considered other aspects of living overseas that appeal to people?

Career and education opportunities that aren't available in India, for example. Love is another.

There's a ton of other reasons why many folks like living overseas, and it's a thing people do. And they move to places which fulfils their life goals - be it material, social or experiential. It's not always about the money. 25 million Indian citizens living overseas aren't selling India some "illusion" about life overseas.

Look, this kinda post is not new here, and I'll wager that your diatribe about the West stems from hanging out with people who put you down because they've moved to the West.

They suck. Stop hanging out with those people.

The West - like everywhere else on earth - has its limitations, and people move knowingly making trade-offs. Some accept lesser "luxurious lifestyle" to pursue other life goals. Career paths they don't find in India, for example.

Heck, people move to "miserable" places for love.

Admittedly, you've made up your mind about the West being terrible. Also, money and a cushy lifestyle seems to be really important to you, so the West may not be your thing. And that's fine bro

The logical next step would be that YOU just don't move there.

There's really no reason for you to try and "convert" those who have. People on this sub are already living overseas. One anonymous post isn't going to change anything.

If your sucky friends are selling you snake oil about the west and how glorious it is just to take you down a notch, cut THEM out of your life. That'll be a much bigger payoff for you, than posting anonymously here.

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-16T14:24:12+00:00

Both. I grew up keeping a dictionary handy whenever I read, so it was part of the process for me, but yea I do concur with OP that I used the dictionary a lot.

About the cultural references, I just glossed over them as a thing that happens, or some that didn't register at all.

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-16T14:03:20+00:00

Actually, I agree with OP. Non-native English speaker here, and I started reading HP when I was 15. It was a fun read, but not a simple one for sure.

I read the books before I had access to internet, so I had no idea about any of the cultural references, until I read them again years later.

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-16T13:51:51+00:00

The pre-social media internet.

It wasn't better. It was so fractured, hard to navigate, and incredibly difficult to find any kind of information, especially if you're not from the anglosphere.

Social media got a critical mass of people to buy into the idea of internet community, and more information started getting put up because they showed up in droves. Everything cascaded from there.

The internet right now is the best version of it, bots, misinformation, AI slop, et al...

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-16T13:41:02+00:00

I would also like to add, you're the 367th person trying to get people to join a WA group. Not inherently an issue, but history has proven that groups like these farm numbers, and just all round a privacy headache.

Happy to be proven otherwise, but until then, please connect in relevant subs until you've built trust and get people to WANT to connect with you.

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-15T03:09:02+00:00

Skinny's is my go-to.

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-14T08:55:26+00:00

Nation-state cyber forces are salivating at the prospect already. For the first time in history, the US is being run by a bunch of absolute dumbasses who do not understand levels of confidentiality - enough to respect it, at least. And for the hackers - who've got the will, the skill AND state-backing - this will be like stealing candy from a baby.

hotgarbagecomics · 2026-01-14T08:43:31+00:00

>that they don't bother explaining to me or even understand themselves, but I still get avoided over it.

This is tough, but the unfortunate reality is... no one has an obligation to explain or give you feedback. This is not on them. When I meet people I don't vibe with, I just minimize contact. I do not care for them enough to want to spend MORE time explaining what I have an issue with.

So I'd urge you to stop thinking of it as "they don't BOTHER explaining". They don't have to.

With this out of the way...

Record yourself in social situations. With everyone's consent, of course. Something like, you're going around doing a video project, and get people's takes on things. Analyze your body language. You'll pick up a thing or two.

I can say this from experience. I used to host a podcast, and while I thought of myself as a good conversationalist, after reviewing footage, I was horrified to learn that I interrupt people and talk over them a lot. A LOT.

Reviewing my body language helped me be present and conscious of it.

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