Diamonds are Bullshit (2013) • Hacker News Board

Re: Diamonds are Bullshit (2013)

#61

Post by graedus » Mon, Mar 23, 2015, 6:37 PM UTC

DanBC wrote: post #38

nosuchthing wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Healthy relationships have a multitude of ways to communicate feelings and connectivity. If a shiney finger stone seems to be required to prove something, that should be some self reflection on the relationship.

If you feel the meed to deny your partner something that brings them joy, even though you think it's bullshit -- that should make you think twice about the relationship. The desire to control your partner that is displayed by many people in these diamond threads is a really unpleasant character flaw.

That seems an unfair way to frame it: there is an important distinction between actively seeking to deny someone something, and being hesitant to spend a considerable chunk of your resources on it.

Re: Diamonds are Bullshit (2013)

#62

Post by Joeboy » Mon, Mar 23, 2015, 6:41 PM UTC

rhino369 wrote: post #55

jawngee wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to be a dick or anything, but "diamond or hit the road" sounds like she is valuing the diamond more than you. I'm sure there was some hyperbole involved, maybe your post is actually an ironic fable, but if neither of those are true ... well, good luck!

The same could be said about someone trying to cheap out on a ring, he's valuing a couple thousand dollars over her. Its just a fiance signing bonus.

I'm guessing you consider a couple of thousand dollars to be quite a small amount of money?

Re: Diamonds are Bullshit (2013)

#63

Post by Joeboy » Mon, Mar 23, 2015, 6:47 PM UTC

DanBC wrote: post #38

nosuchthing wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Healthy relationships have a multitude of ways to communicate feelings and connectivity. If a shiney finger stone seems to be required to prove something, that should be some self reflection on the relationship.

If you feel the meed to deny your partner something that brings them joy, even though you think it's bullshit -- that should make you think twice about the relationship. The desire to control your partner that is displayed by many people in these diamond threads is a really unpleasant character flaw.

> The desire to control your partner ... is a really unpleasant character flaw.

Isn't that a good reason to steer clear of anybody who insists on being bought diamonds?

Edit: Unless you like buying diamonds, or have so much money it doesn't matter.

Re: Diamonds are Bullshit (2013)

#64

Post by Animats » Mon, Mar 23, 2015, 6:52 PM UTC

It's worse than that. The synthetic diamond makers have been making great progress. The first synthetic gem-quality diamonds were made at General Electric in the 1950s. It wasn't cost-effective back then (the heat and pressure method tied up a big press for days), but now it is. Gemesys in Florida is stamping them out. DeBeers tried to stop Gemesys.

Then there are controlled-vapor-deposition synthetic diamonds, which are manufactured by a process which looks a lot like a small semiconductor wafer fab circa 1985. Those can only be distinguished from natural diamonds because they have some hydrogen and silicon inclusions detectable with a laser and microscope setup. The manufacturing process is kind of slow, but that's because it's low-volume. If Applied Materials, which makes semiconductor fab gear, reworked the diamond fab process, diamonds would probably be priced like RAM chips.

Jewelry from both processes is available.

As for synthetic diamond for abrasives, that's easy to make and available by the kilogram on Alibaba.

Re: Diamonds are Bullshit (2013)

#65

Post by dangayle » Mon, Mar 23, 2015, 6:53 PM UTC

jawngee wrote: post #28

dangayle wrote: post #18

I tried to explain all that to my gf, but she was having none of it. It was either a diamond or hit the road, Jack. Proposed to her last Saturday with a shiny diamond ring, she's now my fiance, so I think it was worth it.

Not to be a dick or anything, but "diamond or hit the road" sounds like she is valuing the diamond more than you. I'm sure there was some hyperbole involved, maybe your post is actually an ironic fable, but if neither of those are true ... well, good luck!

Oh, yeah. She would never leave me over something like that, but I definitely got the look. If it was a matter of money, I know she would totally understand. But in her mind and essentially every girl I've ever met, it's a diamond they want. Even if it's a small one, it's symbolic.

Re: Diamonds are Bullshit (2013)

#66

Post by chrisbennet » Mon, Mar 23, 2015, 7:06 PM UTC

I'm soooo glad that my wife thought it was cool to have our rings made by a friend on his 3D printer. :-)

That reminds me, I need to make some replacements. (We had a bunch, but they aren't very durable.)

As for the comments, pretty much nothing anyone says will convince someone that something is stupid once they have done it. Even if you do convince them you will only make them feel bad - so try to be nice.

Re: Diamonds are Bullshit (2013)

#67

Post by bduerst » Mon, Mar 23, 2015, 7:11 PM UTC

sandworm wrote: post #5

The real trick isn't that they get people to buy expensive rocks. The real trick is that they convinced so many of us to rebury them. Cemeteries are most certainly the richest untapped diamond fields in existence.

Why stop there?

Living people wearing jewelry are also an untapped resource of diamonds. /logic

Re: Diamonds are Bullshit (2013)

#68

Post by rhino369 » Mon, Mar 23, 2015, 7:14 PM UTC

Joeboy wrote: post #62

rhino369 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same could be said about someone trying to cheap out on a ring, he's valuing a couple thousand dollars over her. Its just a fiance signing bonus.

I'm guessing you consider a couple of thousand dollars to be quite a small amount of money?

It is a pretty small amount of money. If his fiance was asking him for a super expensive ring while they were broke, yea that is pretty shitty.

Re: Diamonds are Bullshit (2013)

#69

Post by Retric » Mon, Mar 23, 2015, 8:19 PM UTC

hueving wrote: post #29

Retric wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gold jewelry generally resells for ~1/2 of its initial purchase price +/- whatever the gold market did. Land also has a high transfer cost (Real Estate Agent etc) and it's often paid for with a loan which also inflates the purchase price, not to mention taxes, none of which is reflected in the sale price. Generally, if you’re moving in less than 5 years it's better to rent.

The real estate sale cost does not eat half of the value. The loan interest has nothing to do with real estate. That's just what happens when you take a loan for anything. Jewelry is nothing like real estate. If it was, you would see billion dollar hedge funds buying up all of the jewelry.

Few people pay cash for the full price of a home. Most people get a loan a do a 3-20% down payment and can easily lose 1/2 or even all of that on a quick sale.

Re: Diamonds are Bullshit (2013)

#70

Post by pekk » Mon, Mar 23, 2015, 8:50 PM UTC

city41 wrote: post #27

samjordan2 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are very real and noticeable differences between a $30k and $90k BMW other than top speed. There are NOT noticeable differences between a $30k diamond and a $3k moissanite stone. A better analogy would be $100 "professional HDMI cable" and a $10 standard HDMI cable.

> There are NOT noticeable differences between a $30k diamond and a $3k moissanite stone My wife and I felt the same way too, until we actually compared them. The sparkle and brilliance in the diamond was dramatically better than any other stone we compared it to. We went into ring shopping pretty determined to not get a diamond, and yet still bought one.

My compliments to the salesperson.