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Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#471

Post by boatsie »

boatsie wrote: post #464

I find it ironic that many people in this thread are extolling the virtues of lab grown diamonds, as they are nearly indistinguishable from natural ones and cost around 50% less. But they still cost quite a bit, whereas cubic zirconia is also nearly indistinguishable to the naked untrained eye and cost a tiny fraction of that cost. Those who see value in a synthetic diamond over a CZ should also see the value some pe…

I should also mention that even imperceptible to the human eye traits of diamonds like clarity and color, above SI or near-colorless affect value and pricing despite the fact that nobody can tell with the naked eye in normal conditions whether your stone is a F color or I.

Some people just ascribe value to these things, probably in the same way others value comics, baseball cards, art, NFTs...

So let people value what they want rather than pass judgement.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#472

Post by CivBase »

gmadsen wrote: post #381
joeblau wrote: post #65

Random diamond story! As a freshman in college, I took a geology class and our teacher asked all of the women in our class to raise their hand if they would rather have natural or human-made diamonds. Most of the women (over 80%) raised their hands for natural. The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.” Then our teacher gave another analogy. He asked if people would ra…

I has nothing to do with branding. It is entirely about price and false scarcity. traditionally it was an important gesture that the man was investing a large sum of money into his soon to be wife

I never understood the idea behind a wedding ring being an "investment". It's not like you plan on ever selling it. It's purely an expense. If you wont sell it, then a ring's value is only in its aesthetic and any sentiment attached to it by the wearer - neither of which seem to be strongly related to the initial purchasing price.

Of course, people often sell their rings if they get divorced... but wouldn't that make actually an expensive ring an incentive to separate? The whole gesture makes very little sense.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#473

Post by beaconstudios »

akarma wrote: post #422
jliptzin wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sincerely wish you good luck in your marriage, you’re going to need it.

Many women won't directly tell their partner "I want you to spend a couple months' salary on a beautiful diamond" because it's tasteless to request and it removes all the meaning behind the man doing so, but they'd also be disappointed if the man didn't do so unprompted. People and their emotions are complex like that. I don't think there's any glaring issue with either party above, but it's like you expect all women…

there's nothing rational about HN's brand of rationalism - which is really just materialist reductionism. In this thread alone are dozens of people completely blind to the concept of social signals, thinking instead about price, clarity and the vague notion of distant moral dilemmas. Beyond basic survival requirements, social signals are one of the most important concepts in human society! To exclude them from your considerations is deeply irrational in the unique way that developers often are.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#474

Post by symlinkk »

washadjeffmad wrote: post #406
joeblau wrote: post #65

Random diamond story! As a freshman in college, I took a geology class and our teacher asked all of the women in our class to raise their hand if they would rather have natural or human-made diamonds. Most of the women (over 80%) raised their hands for natural. The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.” Then our teacher gave another analogy. He asked if people would ra…

I went through this not that many years ago buying a ring for my SO. My biggest mistake was including her in the decision. She described what she wanted exactly– nothing gaudy or ostentatious, just a singular, tasteful stone on a plain band. Couldn't be simpler, could it? Finding stones that met her criteria was easy. Some were natural diamonds, some lab grown, many moissanite. From the outset, she said the meaning o…

I don’t see what’s so hard to understand. The entire point of buying a ring is that you’re showing her how much you care by spending a bunch of money on something special. Instead, you decided to save money and get something that’s not as special, and that hurt her feelings.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#475

Post by sangnoir »

klmadfejno wrote: post #451
sangnoir wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Social signaling and innate competitiveness is a hell of a drug. A former all-Linux employer had standardized on issuing Dell laptops, and everything was fine. Until some joiner in middle/lower management petitioned for a Macbook Pro and got it, and a couple more popped up in the Excel-jockey stratum, and the floodgates were opened. PMs and team leads all started to report all sorts of "problems" with their old lapto…

Cocaine is also a drug, and yet, one doesn't need to date someone addicted to either. > I wouldn't go that far - we all have hobbies/interests we are passionate about that we're not utilitarian about and are willing to go all-out on. Judging a person on one axis feels like a mistake to me. I don't this is a hobby so much as a world view, or as you stated, an addiction. To me it indicates a very materialistic, shallow…

> To me it indicates a very materialistic, shallow worldview. If 40k rings are required to show love, what do they think of people who aren't as wealthy?

Or - hear me out - the partner was embarrassed to verbalize that she's competing with the friend's engagement ring, and therefore created a less embarrassing, post-hoc rationalization as to why she wants a $40k ring too. Here's a thought experiment - had the friend gotten a $6k ring, would she have asked for a ring closer to $6k or still gone with $40k, by some intuition?

> Heck if someone's marrying you, why do you need to show your love at all, shouldn't that be established to them?

Unfortunately, no (on both sides: some people marry for the wrong reasons, and it's not close to showing your love - which shouldn't be an event)

> I think you should be incredibly judgy about who you choose to marry.

Absolutely.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#476

Post by jokethrowaway »

willcipriano wrote: post #436
saberdancer wrote: post #429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like typical "I don't need anything for my birthday". Even the most rational people tend to get disappointed if they really get nothing.

I don't get disappointed. The best gift you can get me for my birthday is remove the obligation for me to get you one on yours. Saves so much mental energy and time.

Same, even though I've been bit by it.

After rationally agreeing not to get anything (because we were about to move overseas on a couple of luggages and didn't want extra stuff) my SO got me 3 (3!! usually it was one per event) gifts and I was empty handed.

And I had to resell / returns some of the items as we were moving anyway and we could just buy better quality stuff later on, without having to pay for the move.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#477

Post by 55555 »

_fat_santa wrote: post #398
faet wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Diamond prices are fairly stable, the issue is jewelers mark prices way up and most people don't know what a good price is. If a diamond goes for $5k wholesale, chances are they're looking to sell it for $10-20k. Since most people only buy 1-2 engagement rings in their lifetime they don't know what is a reasonable price. They "shop around" at three stores that are all owned by the same company. So they end up paying…

I feel like if you took and old diamond ring, reset it and refinished it, there would be no way to tell that it was "used". Maybe resetting it will introduce some flaws that weren't there before. Kind of crazy when people say they want a "new" diamond, uh....well all of them are literally millions of years old unless it's lab grown.

> I feel like if you took and old diamond ring, reset it and refinished it, there would be no way to tell that it was "used". Maybe resetting it will introduce some flaws that weren't there before.

Can anyone who works in the diamond industry respond to this? Can anyone tell if a diamond has been made into a ring before? Would it damage the diamond to remove it from the ring? This sounds like an opportunity to plaster signs that say "WE BUY DIAMOND RINGS" all over and buy them back from consumers at a discount from wholesale.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#478

Post by EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK »

washadjeffmad wrote: post #406
joeblau wrote: post #65

Random diamond story! As a freshman in college, I took a geology class and our teacher asked all of the women in our class to raise their hand if they would rather have natural or human-made diamonds. Most of the women (over 80%) raised their hands for natural. The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.” Then our teacher gave another analogy. He asked if people would ra…

I went through this not that many years ago buying a ring for my SO. My biggest mistake was including her in the decision. She described what she wanted exactly– nothing gaudy or ostentatious, just a singular, tasteful stone on a plain band. Couldn't be simpler, could it? Finding stones that met her criteria was easy. Some were natural diamonds, some lab grown, many moissanite. From the outset, she said the meaning o…

Look at it as a proof of work. What matters is you burned a certain chunk of your life for her.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#479

Post by dragonwriter »

intergalplan wrote: post #417
washadjeffmad wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went through this not that many years ago buying a ring for my SO. My biggest mistake was including her in the decision. She described what she wanted exactly– nothing gaudy or ostentatious, just a singular, tasteful stone on a plain band. Couldn't be simpler, could it? Finding stones that met her criteria was easy. Some were natural diamonds, some lab grown, many moissanite. From the outset, she said the meaning o…

Now try a "used" diamond. shudders

> Now try a "used" diamond.

The right “used” diamonds are often received better than fresh natural diamonds by recipients. But that depends a lot on the “origin story”.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#480

Post by MadSudaca »

washadjeffmad wrote: post #406
joeblau wrote: post #65

Random diamond story! As a freshman in college, I took a geology class and our teacher asked all of the women in our class to raise their hand if they would rather have natural or human-made diamonds. Most of the women (over 80%) raised their hands for natural. The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.” Then our teacher gave another analogy. He asked if people would ra…

I went through this not that many years ago buying a ring for my SO. My biggest mistake was including her in the decision. She described what she wanted exactly– nothing gaudy or ostentatious, just a singular, tasteful stone on a plain band. Couldn't be simpler, could it? Finding stones that met her criteria was easy. Some were natural diamonds, some lab grown, many moissanite. From the outset, she said the meaning o…

Your mistake was not knowing enough about evolutionary biology. I suggest you read about Signaling Theory.
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