A Fond Farewell • Hacker News Board

Re: A Fond Farewell

#221

Post by selimthegrim » Sun, Nov 09, 2025, 3:04 PM UTC

reaperducer wrote: post #127

Spooky23 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their audience is old people who buy the book at the cashier line at Walmart. Both their customer base and sales outlet is dying off. These things are really magazines that run once a year. The notion of a magazine is a weird concept that doesn’t compute for anyone younger than 35.

These things are really magazines that run once a year. The notion of a magazine is a weird concept that doesn’t compute for anyone younger than 35. Ageism aside, your stereotype of young people today is about a decade out of date. It doesn't sound like you've been to a book store in America since 2015. I see high schoolers gathered around the magazine racks at the book store every time I visit, which is at least wee…

Teen Vogue just got killed though

Re: A Fond Farewell

#222

Post by sokka_h2otribe » Sun, Nov 09, 2025, 5:53 PM UTC

llbbdd wrote: post #217

Spooky23 wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We decided in the 1970s that all must be sacrificed on the alter of maximizing shareholder value.

What happened in the 70s?

Change in the anti monopoly enforcement norms near the end of the 70s

Re: A Fond Farewell

#223

Post by AuthAuth » Mon, Nov 10, 2025, 12:10 AM UTC

thesuitonym wrote: post #208

anonymars wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider this little anecdote from Kurt Vonnegut: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/kurt-vonnegut-envelope-quo... DAVID BRANCACCIO: There's a little sweet moment, I've got to say, in a very intense book — your latest — in which you're heading out the door and your wife says what are you doing? I think you say — I'm getting — I'm going to buy an envelope. KURT VONNEGUT: Yeah. DAVID BRANCACCIO: What happens then? KURT…

Rare miss from Vonnegut, it's not the computer people. We know, and we care a lot. It's the owning people.

It is the computer people. The 'owning' people were computer people that founded these companies. Its computer people that sit in these meetings and go through designing these changes and building these systems. I'm a privacy person and yesterday my boss asked me to pull up records on a users device to see a record of what they were doing and I did it even though its disgusting micromanagement that I hate.

Re: A Fond Farewell

#224

Post by mtillman » Mon, Nov 10, 2025, 6:56 AM UTC

hajile wrote: post #131

mtillman wrote: post #11

I skim both almanac products each year. Both have helpful little home tips and quite a bit of gardening advice. Sad to see them go.

Should have paid the $9 instead of just skimming...

Um…that’s how I skim them. I buy them. Sorry for the confusion.

Re: A Fond Farewell

#225

Post by MichaelZuo » Mon, Nov 10, 2025, 1:22 PM UTC

_DeadFred_ wrote: post #186

MichaelZuo wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if it’s so valuable… why aren’t people willing to pay for it? Forgoing luxuries like a vacation to support local stores full of people you know and trust, that might charge 20% more for the same product, seems like an obvious thing… That almost no Americans do in reality.

Huge sections of America/American's are incredibly poor. Add that the highest income people were the first to switch to Amazon, and are more online first than community first. It didn't take losing too many of those customers for the economics to fall apart. I live in a tourist town that has had a huge influx of new, higher wealth people post COVID. Surprising to me our businesses/restaurants are doing worse with thi…

If they have money to afford a vacation every few years or a RV, they are significantly richer than the vast majority of people on this planet.

So it seems like a flimsy excuse.