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YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

ycgiftideas.com

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Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

#71

Post by exolymph »

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #35
dang wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It claims to teach code to teens/tweens, but speaking as one myself I'll cut you some slack for that reason, but you need to (re-)read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and nip that internet rant thing in the bud ("the same way that a man covered in shit attracts high society"?) if you want to continue commenting here.

Yeah. Sorry dang. I'll go re-read that now, seeing as I quite clearly need of a refresher. And there's no need to cut me slack for my age (although it's nice of you to do so): I broke the rules, and I'm responsible for my actions. Just like any other member of HN. Twice in three years is too many times to have to say this to you. bows head in shame

Bummer that your apology got downvoted, since this is a gracious response to being called out. Kudos. We've all been jerks on the internet — the key is learning how to curb that behavior, which it seems like you're doing pretty well.

Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

#72

Post by mlinsey »

xiaoma wrote: post #30

The thing that really strikes me about this list is how nearly everything on it is offered at a premium price. One thing I loved about the tech world while I was growing up was that it was consistently doing more with less. Wikipedia displaced Encyclopaedia Brittanica by being both better and free. Hotmail was a clear win over AOL and Yahoo's offerings and then Gmail was faster and handled spam better while giving mo…

True for web software - but that's never been true for hardware. Hardware always starts expensive for early adopters and gets radically cheaper as adoption scales up. The cheapest Apple 2 was over $5,000 (in inflation-adjusted dollars) at its release, the IBM 5150 debuted four years later at a more competitive $4,000, and the monitor was separate in both releases.

Besides hardware, lots of the other current startups are offline services, that are taking something formerly for the super-rich and making it accessible to the upper-middle class (eg: a private driver, a personal chef, custom-tailored clothing, custom paintings). They may not be within budget for everyone but they are still following the trend of doing more with less.

Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

#73

Post by ryanlol »

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #60
ryanlol wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't you just give kids prepaid Visa/MC cards instead? And I'm not from the US, but the idea of school-age kids not having their own cards sounds a little funny to me.

Not having credit cards? It's fairly common. Even Debit cards are not the sort of things you give to kids. As for prepaid Visas, they're a relatively recent thing, and generally less known.

>Not having credit cards? It's fairly common. Even Debit cards are not the sort of things you give to kids.

Must be a huge pain in the ass. With modern electronic only debit cards it's really easy to give your kids cards and makes managing money within the family so much easier.

Kid texts you after school and says they need $5 to go out with friends? Sure, pull up your phone app and instantly put $5 to their card. It's almost impossible to cleanly replicate this with cash.

>As for prepaid Visas, they're a relatively recent thing, and generally less known.

Sure, but at this point they're just as available as "normal" gift cards.

Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

#74

Post by aaachilless »

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #31
koolba wrote: post #2

Unless there's a significant financial incentive to do so (ex: 2-to-1 match), don't give people gift cards. Gift cards are the biggest scam ever pulled by the retail industry, or more specifically, perpetuating the idea that giving cash is taboo. The one exception would be giving a preloaded credit card to someone who otherwise doesn't have access to one (ex: a niece/nephew that's far away) and only if there are no f…

There are circumstances in which Gift Cards are acceptable. For example, gift cards for online stores (iTunes, Amazon, Steam, etc.). This is particularly acceptable for children, as they are otherwise unable to purchase items from such stores.

Another example where gift cards may add to the experience is white elephant gift exchanges [1].

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant_gift_exchange

Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

#75

Post by AnOscelot »

soylentcola wrote: post #18
dpark wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unless there's a significant financial incentive to do so (ex: 2-to-1 match), don't give people gift cards. Gift cards are the biggest scam ever pulled by the retail industry, or more specifically, perpetuating the idea that giving cash is taboo. The problem is that cash often feels like not giving a gift at all. If you exchange fifty-dollar bills with a sibling, it feels pointless. Gift cards can alleviate that fe…

My (to be fair, minor) issue with gift cards is that they're essentially saying "hey, have some money...but you can only spend it at this one place of my choosing, not yours". I'm aware that this is pretty low on the list of problems you'd hate to have but it's there nonetheless. Let's say a relative has heard me talk about some Arduino project I'm messing with or something to do with building a computer. They don't…

>"hey, have some money...but you can only spend it at this one place of my choosing, not yours".

In some circumstances, that's actually an advantage, and works as a positive for the recipient.

When I was in college, money was tight. Had to be very careful with every dollar. When relatives would give me money for holidays, it would just go into the general fund and had to be treated with the same care as the rest of it. That money was certainly appreciated and made my life easier, but not a lot of fun was had with it.

But when I'd get gift cards to Amazon or Best Buy or Borders, suddenly it was a license to go crazy. To recklessly buy electronics, books, and luxuries I couldn't otherwise justify. It wasn't just a gift of money. It was a gift of money without worries attached.

Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

#76

Post by CalRobert »

maxerickson wrote: post #39
dpark wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unless there's a significant financial incentive to do so (ex: 2-to-1 match), don't give people gift cards. Gift cards are the biggest scam ever pulled by the retail industry, or more specifically, perpetuating the idea that giving cash is taboo. The problem is that cash often feels like not giving a gift at all. If you exchange fifty-dollar bills with a sibling, it feels pointless. Gift cards can alleviate that fe…

My brothers and I alleviated that feeling by not giving each other stuff anymore. Maybe a knickknack or a tchotchke, just not "things we would each go ahead and buy if we wanted them".

For a few years running my sister and I bought each other Amazon GC's (it was always mildly awkward when the amounts didn't match). It really illustrated the madness of adults with decent jobs buying each other random crap for no particular reason.

Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

#77

Post by VLM »

Jun8 wrote: post #51

What, no STEM toys!? Have you visited the toy gadget section of your typical store, e.g. Target, BestBuy lately? It's full of crappy stuff marketed under the buzzword "STEM" for unknowing parents. Examples: Construction kits from Vex Robotics, WowWee's CHIP Robotic Dog, etc. etc. Problem with these "STEM revolutionary" toys is that they are not open ended, even with the so-called programmable ones kids get tired afte…

Erector / Meccano is a nice open ended STEM toy that could use some disruption and metrication and modernization and no themed disney licenses please.

Unfortunately there is this strange attractor that sucks everyone who trys it into "I wanna make kids version of 80/20 because 80/20 is both cool and insanely expensive" leading to "heres my custom aluminum extrusion of immense expense that works with nothing out there, but now I know why 80/20 is incredibly expensive" leading to "remember those guys?"

Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

#79

Post by tjr »

AnOscelot wrote: post #75
soylentcola wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My (to be fair, minor) issue with gift cards is that they're essentially saying "hey, have some money...but you can only spend it at this one place of my choosing, not yours". I'm aware that this is pretty low on the list of problems you'd hate to have but it's there nonetheless. Let's say a relative has heard me talk about some Arduino project I'm messing with or something to do with building a computer. They don't…

>"hey, have some money...but you can only spend it at this one place of my choosing, not yours". In some circumstances, that's actually an advantage, and works as a positive for the recipient. When I was in college, money was tight. Had to be very careful with every dollar. When relatives would give me money for holidays, it would just go into the general fund and had to be treated with the same care as the rest of i…

Agreed, and I sometimes give gift cards with that in mind. Though I try to make it a gift card at a store that I feel certain the recipient will appreciate.

Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

#80

Post by throwaway729 »

Jun8 wrote: post #51

What, no STEM toys!? Have you visited the toy gadget section of your typical store, e.g. Target, BestBuy lately? It's full of crappy stuff marketed under the buzzword "STEM" for unknowing parents. Examples: Construction kits from Vex Robotics, WowWee's CHIP Robotic Dog, etc. etc. Problem with these "STEM revolutionary" toys is that they are not open ended, even with the so-called programmable ones kids get tired afte…

Not surprising. People actually in the market for STEM play things will get their kids telescopes, microscopes, chemistry kits, soldering irons, computers, hobby robotics/electronics parts, ...

The market for people who want STEM play things, don't know what to buy, and can't tell crap from gold, has to be incredibly small

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