Protien powder suggestion

[Husseinisdoingfine]

4 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Brands who portray themselves as fancy are selling you bullshit. That's the point of a brand. It's a fantasy.

Really? Is this correct of all fancy and luxurious brands? So brands that are selling luxurious premium top of the line cigars, or lets say, alcohol or clothes, is it all bullshit? What about wristwatches and cars?

[Schizophonia]

17 hours ago, Husseinisdoingfine said:

Really? Is this correct of all fancy and luxurious brands? So brands that are selling luxurious premium top of the line cigars, or lets say, alcohol or clothes, is it all bullshit? What about wristwatches and cars?

He's not wrong, the manufactured products that I bought with the best quality presented little marketing effort or at least had a particularly sober presentation, generally artisanal, local products.
This is especially true for food.

[Leo Gura]

23 hours ago, Husseinisdoingfine said:

Really? Is this correct of all fancy and luxurious brands? So brands that are selling luxurious premium top of the line cigars, or lets say, alcohol or clothes, is it all bullshit? What about wristwatches and cars?

Mostly.

Luxury items are mostly scamming your money to sell you a childish fantasy. Watches, clothes, and cars especially. And the more luxury and pricey they are, the more of a scam it is. It's a mind-scam. These brands fool you into thinking these things are important and valuable when they basically aren't.

A $20,000 Rolex is a mind-scam.

Nobody needs these items, they don't even have good build quality, and they won't make you happy.

Edited April 29, 2024 by Leo Gura

[Extreme Z7]

Luxury items are mainly about status and ego.

[undeather]

11 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Mostly.

Luxury items are mostly scamming your money to sell you a childish fantasy. Watches, clothes, and cars especially. And the more luxury and pricey they are, the more of a scam it is. It's a mind-scam. These brands fool you into thinking these things are important and valuable when they basically aren't.

A $20,000 Rolex is a mind-scam.

Nobody needs these items, they don't even have good build quality, and they won't make you happy.

While the general point is obviously correct, there is much more nuance to this topic than we give it credit for.
Taking Rolex as the prime example for luxury items being "mind-scams" is a bit short sighted in my view.
Rolex watches are hyper percisely handcrafted, prime exemplars of human engineering. It takes someone thousands of hours of mastery to become a watchmaker capable of building such machines. There is a huge difference between that, and some Gucci bag sewed together in a chinese sweatshop. Both are overpriced "luxury items" but there is clear difference in substance behind them. 

We don't need these items - but that can be said about almost anythign we own.
While luxury won't bring you lasting happiness, there is definitely a component of "apprechiation" which is often overlooked in such discussions.  I mean, Leo - you buy tribal masks from auctions - something that can be deemed completely useless in context of the same argumentative framework. Yet I would argue that gathering such artefacts is something that authentically speaks to you. 

You can have the same sense of apprechiation about expensive cars, watches, alcoholic beverages, clothes, paintings, phones.. - but from a standpoint of maturity. When I think of luxury items being a mind-scam, then what comes to mind is usually something like this:

 

 

Edited April 29, 2024 by undeather

[Leo Gura]

36 minutes ago, undeather said:

Leo - you buy tribal masks from auctions - something that can be deemed completely useless

The difference is there is no brand brainwashing people to buy African masks.

Buy whatever you want. But be aware of how brands brainwash you.

People don't buy Rolexs because they authentically admire them. They buy them mindlessly as status symbols.

I have an expensive Omega watch. This piece of crap broke when I was adjusting the time on it. Now it costs $500 to fix it. A Walmart watch would be more reliable.

Edited April 29, 2024 by Leo Gura

[undeather]

Quote

People don't buy Rolexs because they authentically admire them.

Some people do, most don't.
 

[Schizophonia]

58 minutes ago, undeather said:

 

It is above all proof that you can be rich and have no taste.

[Nemra]

@Schizophonia

The photo shows that rich people's status game is different.

Edited April 29, 2024 by Nemra

[Husseinisdoingfine]

15 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Mostly.

Luxury items are mostly scamming your money to sell you a childish fantasy. Watches, clothes, and cars especially. And the more luxury and pricey they are, the more of a scam it is. It's a mind-scam. These brands fool you into thinking these things are important and valuable when they basically aren't.

A $20,000 Rolex is a mind-scam.

Nobody needs these items, they don't even have good build quality, and they won't make you happy.

Does this as well apply to Universities, where the top of the line University is supposedly better than your local public research university? I ask this because I'm deeply insecure about the rank and status of my school.

[Princess Arabia]

4 minutes ago, Husseinisdoingfine said:

Does this as well apply to Universities, where the top of the line University is supposedly better than your local public research university? I ask this because I'm deeply insecure about the rank and status of my school.

A $20,000 Rolex is telling you something you can get for free, At least a University can educate you and tell you something a watch cannot. There's no comparison between a University and a useless watch that only increases your chance for depression when no one cares and doesn't treat you any more special and now you you're looking for a $40,000 watch to compensate. Knowledge is priceless and can get you somewhere other than knowing the time, which doesn't even exist.

[Schizophonia]

6 hours ago, Nemra said:

@Schizophonia

The photo shows that rich people's status game is different.

It's true, but they still follow low-conscious logics, playing on the market value of their clothes.

[Nemra]

@Schizophonia

I meant that they could play status games, which aren't about clothing.

[Schizophonia]

21 minutes ago, Nemra said:

@Schizophonia

I meant that they could play status games, which aren't about clothing.

Anyway, the real elite but tailor-made clothes made in an artisan 

[Bobby_2021]

@Leo Gura Do you think a $190k Benz G wagon is a scam?

Could there be legit reasons to buy a car with good brand name for security, performance etc....

[Leo Gura]

16 hours ago, Michael569 said:

I think there is something to be said about treating yourself with a material gift for a hard work, for example when you have a successful year as a business owner and rather than reinvesting everything, you get yourself an expensive handbag or an expensive watch simply because you can and because you made it. I don't see a problem with that.

As I said, buy whatever you want. Just be mindful of how brands brainwash you with fantasies of their products.

15 hours ago, Husseinisdoingfine said:

Does this as well apply to Universities, where the top of the line University is supposedly better than your local public research university? I ask this because I'm deeply insecure about the rank and status of my school.

No, top universities have higher quality professors and students.

Although of course there is a major status game going on there as well.

[Leo Gura]

3 hours ago, Bobby_2021 said:

@Leo Gura Do you think a $190k Benz G wagon is a scam?

It's not a scam, but the status associated with it is.

People who buy G Wagons do it for status moreso than for a quality car. Because you can get quality car for much cheaper.

Edited April 30, 2024 by Leo Gura

[Davino]

17 hours ago, Husseinisdoingfine said:

Does this as well apply to Universities, where the top of the line University is supposedly better than your local public research university? I ask this because I'm deeply insecure about the rank and status of my school

Depends on the country. Europe universities are mostly the same in terms of actual quality, but status does matter. The difference is usually from a good to an excellent university. In other countries I cannot say, but probably there is a bigger gap

Edited April 30, 2024 by Davino

[thenondualtankie]

University prestige is somewhat of a self fulfilling prophecy, so it does affect the quality of teaching, research, funding, everything.

It still ends up only being what you make of it though. If you go to a shit university nothing is stopping you from self educating.

[LSD-Rumi]

I would cut my hand before wearing a Rolex watch.

@Leo Gura Some people in my country buy special car licenses for huge sum of money. It is the ultimate status scam.

This one for example was bought by an Iraqi millionare for 700 thousand dollars!!