It's inspiring but I have a question: People always think they can describe what they need (a perfect boyfriend?) But in fact not. "Perfect" things get boring very quickly, especially when you know it's designed.
“I paid $25 for an Invisible Boyfriend, and I think I might be in love”
231–240 of 265 posts
Re: “I paid $25 for an Invisible Boyfriend, and I think I might be in love”
#232Earlier quoted context omitted.
Books are great for making you feel something about fictional (or non fictional) characters, but they've got nothing on games when it comes to making you feel something about yourself.
You should try reading a good book.
Good books are great for making you feel disdain towards imagined (or real) unwashed gamers, but they've got nothing on games when it comes to 2nd-order meta-self-trolling.
Re: “I paid $25 for an Invisible Boyfriend, and I think I might be in love”
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
By greatest marketing concept you mean a quick and easy way to make money, yeah? I wouldn't be so hard on yourself for not having thought of it. Personally, I believe humanity would be at a net gain had no one thought of or executed on this idea.
You realize this has real and tangible value to lots of folks, right? Despite spending the vast majority of my life on the Internet, every single day I am disappointed by how judgmental and incapable of empathy folks are who say things to other people online. Jesus, put yourself in someone else's shoes just this once . I wouldn't use this service, and I don't know anyone who would, but to say that Invisible Boyfriend…
I was right there with you until you brought up the LGBT bit. This service has no real safety benefits for members of the queer community who are in danger. Full stop..
Re: “I paid $25 for an Invisible Boyfriend, and I think I might be in love”
#234Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a very good example of male privilege. What comes to mind as the first thing that would happen as a result of this? Most women are smaller than the men that hit on them, and are constantly told they need to be vigilant against assault (this is a consequence of victim-blaming, which is wrongheaded, but nonetheless psychologically influencial). A woman saying "I'm not interested" is directly rejecting the man h…
That is a very bleak, and, if I may say so, quite sexist world view. Or I guess I should count myself lucky that in my work/social environments, people don't base their respect of other people on gender, but on behaviour and attitude. Also, I don't necessarily see vigilance against a potential attacker as wrongheaded. I see it as sensible, you're hedging against a very-low-probability but very-dire-consequence risk.…
The damage from fear can be far worse than the actual risk. Especially if the altered behavior from fear doesn't mitigate the risk.
Re: “I paid $25 for an Invisible Boyfriend, and I think I might be in love”
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
[edited because I was unnecessarily brusque.] It was a practical joke, pretty much at my own expense, and I told my friends afterwards. The "joke" is that two very attractive women fighting over me is very unbelievable.
So, why don't you use your real name on HN, again?
Yes, ask someone why they are hiding their name while you insult them.
Re: “I paid $25 for an Invisible Boyfriend, and I think I might be in love”
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
[edited because I was unnecessarily brusque.] It was a practical joke, pretty much at my own expense, and I told my friends afterwards. The "joke" is that two very attractive women fighting over me is very unbelievable.
So, why don't you use your real name on HN, again?
So he can confidently tell personal stories to strangers?
Re: “I paid $25 for an Invisible Boyfriend, and I think I might be in love”
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
You realize this has real and tangible value to lots of folks, right? Despite spending the vast majority of my life on the Internet, every single day I am disappointed by how judgmental and incapable of empathy folks are who say things to other people online. Jesus, put yourself in someone else's shoes just this once . I wouldn't use this service, and I don't know anyone who would, but to say that Invisible Boyfriend…
I was right there with you until you brought up the LGBT bit. This service has no real safety benefits for members of the queer community who are in danger. Full stop..
Queer person here. This company is clearly riding on the coat tails of the community and doesn't give two shits about us. They are simply marketing themselves this way to tap into a market of closeted people and they decided to play this up to boost revenue.
If they were actually concerned with the safety and wellbeing of LGBT folk they would create something that reflects the needs of communities and it would take into account how complex we are. They would not push something so simplistic on us claiming it's good for us without ever asking themselves if this is true or if their idea is actually a positive contribution to the community. I'm not sorry to say this: LGBT issues are not so simple that they can be solved with such quick fixes because a handful of community members find such fixes momentarily useful. This company might tangentially help a few people but realistically it might also make a lot of scenarios worse. More credibility to closet stories = less people out = less safety due to smaller numbers; more attention drawn to fake SMS relationship = higher chance of forced outing; transaction history on a teenager's bank account = higher chance of forced outing to parents = higher chance of homelessness and/or abuse; only some people can afford $25/mo. = separation of LGB community by class = fragmentation of community; doesn't consider the entire queer community = less solidarity; etc.
Also companies should stop saying LGBT when really they mean "some lesbians & some gays & maybe some bisexuals but not any trans* folk and definitely no one who doesn't have money".
Re: “I paid $25 for an Invisible Boyfriend, and I think I might be in love”
#238Earlier quoted context omitted.
It turns out they watched Downton Abbey, in which case it's a 15 second response. If they hadn't watched Downton Abbey - also 15 second response. And, from reading the script - it's apparently the case that the same CSA will get scheduled in for short periods of time with the same customer - able to maintain a thread, and presumably, all the CSAs have the thread available to respond.
> all the CSAs have the thread available to respond. That's the catch: they have to read the full thread and then respond... in 18 seconds on average! That is a lot. I can barely read a decent-sized paragraph in 18 seconds; and the average typing speed of a professional is 50 - 80 wpm; which means even a 10-word response will take around 10 seconds to type. So you have 8 seconds left to grok the entire context and fo…
Yes - I concur that if there is a context switch - you'll run into some performance issues, good point. This suggests then that the system performs best when people are doing back-and-forth on a single thread.
Re: “I paid $25 for an Invisible Boyfriend, and I think I might be in love”
#239A perfect application of the Forer effect: humans have an amazing ability to interpret what can apply to anyone as having special significance for themselves. It's the same reason why horoscopes and fortune cookies work. Stepping back and thinking logically, it's easy to see why their messages might apply to a lot of people. But when you're reading one, you can't help but think, "Ah! It says that I would encounter ad…
This drive to reduce humanity to a set of chemical reactions and evolutionary traits is misplaced, because nothing makes less amazing our ability to love just about anything. And we should celebrate that, instead of being condescending about it, because you know, life would be very boring and unfulfilling without feelings.
Re: “I paid $25 for an Invisible Boyfriend, and I think I might be in love”
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
Astrology is obviously nonsense, but it seems plausible that the season of birth could have a personality effect: the cold dead of winter, with little fresh food vs spring etc, also from the attitudes of surrounding adults. Of course, different near the equator, and phase-shifted in the southern hemisphere, and... much less pronounced in modern times, with supermarkets, refrigeration, air-conditioning/heating, import…
The socially-constructed age-cohort you go into is huge too. Want better grades and performance at sports? Be months older than your classmates.
The reverse is true, too: Want better performance than people of the same age? Have had more training than them.
I suspect this applies especially to language or logic related tasks.
We will likely never find out, variance seems to be extremely high, while the actual differences are very low.