How to buy gifts that people actually want • Hacker News Board

Re: How to buy gifts that people actually want

#281

Post by schwartzworld » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 1:42 AM UTC

dataflow wrote: post #134

joshstrange wrote: post #21

Best gift advice I give regularly: Keep a note on your phone (doesn't matter the app Apple Notes, Google Keep, SimpleNote, Drafts, etc) with a header for each person you want to get a gift for. Throughout the year whenever you hear them say "I love X author" or "I'm getting into Y hobby" then add a little note under their name. These can be as simple as "Coconut La Croix is their favorite seltzer flavor and brand" to…

It's really good advice if you're only doing this once per person, but you want to be a bit more careful that it doesn't lose its effectiveness if you want to be able to do it multiple times. Not sure if this happens for other people, but I know when I've gotten gifts based on my comments, I've sometimes started watching what I comment on with that person, which has affected my comments thereafter... not because the…

I spent about 2 months researching tents because I wanted to start camping with my daughter. I had a strict set of requirements and I didn't want to bite the bullet til I was sure I'd gotten the right one.

My dad asked my wife what to get me for a birthday present. She knew I was tent shopping so he got me one. I don't want to sound ungrateful because it was a lovely gesture, but I also could have just picked the first one on Amazon that looked good. I didn't do that because I wanted a specific thing.

I don't want to return the tent because it's a present, I don't have space to store 2 tents and I don't want to use the one he got because it doesn't have any of the features I wanted in a tent.

Anyway, now I don't tell anybody when I'm planning on buying something like that.

Re: How to buy gifts that people actually want

#282

Post by acomjean » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 5:30 AM UTC

irrational wrote: post #219

cgriswald wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot to unpack here. I think a much better method is to recognize that if you have trouble figuring out a gift for a person, you either haven't put enough thought into it, or you don't know the person as well as you might like. > "I love X author" This is fine as long as you realize they probably own all of author's works and maybe even pre-ordered the latest release. Find something unique (signed copy? firs…

Authors have rivals? What is an example of rival authors?

Alex beam wrote a book about two: The Feud; Vladimir Nabokov, Edmund Wilson and the End of a Beautiful Friendship.

https://www.amazon.com/Feud-Vladimir-Nabokov-Beautiful-Frien...

Re: How to buy gifts that people actually want

#283

Post by stehn » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 9:23 AM UTC

joshstrange wrote: post #150

_carbyau_ wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I haven't implemented this though I know I should... but I came across this idea in Robert Heinleins Double Star as a reference to Farley Files. In essence, Farley was Roosevelts aid and kept files on everyone he met so before meeting them again Roosevelt could cram study and "recall everything about them" like they were a close personal friend. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farley_file For some reason th…

This is very interesting and something I've been playing around with in my head. I keep "chasing the dragon" when it comes to note taking apps/approaches. I've played with everything from NvAlt+SimpleNote (for iOS), Evernote, Notion, Drafts, Editorial, Obsidian, and more. Most recently when I was experimenting with the Zettelkasten notes system (in Obsidian) I got the idea that I would want to do exactly what you tal…

I have the same issue with organizing my notes. On the mac, I have recently started using agenda (https://www.agenda.com/) and am really liking it. You can easily link notes to dates, events, and other notes. You can export notes and sync through iCloud or Dropbox.

The free version already gives a lot of useful functionality and they have an interesting payment model in which you unlock all current features (and updates over the next year) with a single payment. Hence you could use it as a subscription or simply pay once if the new features are not yet worth it to you.

Re: How to buy gifts that people actually want

#284

Post by Aachen » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 3:18 PM UTC

srtjstjsj wrote: post #260

Aachen wrote: post #125

This article makes no sense. It claims I frequently fake positive responses to getting gifts. Being Dutch I fake it less than I probably would in USA culture, but I also just very rarely get a gift I don't want . Is this the norm elsewhere? For me it's just my grandma that doesn't understand what my life is like and gives me a book about local cooking history or some similar crap. Everyone else will remember if I tel…

Wouldn't it better to receive gifts you value instead of wasteful junk?

Yes.

It sounds like you interpreted something I wrote to mean the opposite. Could you be a little more specific?

Re: How to buy gifts that people actually want

#285

Post by bodo11 » Fri, Dec 04, 2020, 9:18 AM UTC

jbaber wrote: post #242

tbirdz wrote: post #18

What do you do if you genuinely don't want anything? It seems like people don't believe you and keep harassing you asking for what you really want, and then get really frustrated when you keep saying "No, really I don't want anything ". Then they either respect your wishes and don't get anything, but seem to harbor some kind of resentment against you in their heart, or they get some random garbage you don't want and…

I just have a webpage with the title "Wishlist" that lists a bunch of charities I like and explains I don't want anymore stuff. I never tell anyone about the list, but friends have told friends and everyone figured it out. I was elated when someone donated blood as my wedding gift.

Interesting, care to share that site?