What is something you never understood the hype for?

Apple

Driving a pickup truck as your commute vehicle. The mileage is terrible, and you have reduced visibility in front of the hood. Get a safer and more efficient vehicle. It'll be cheaper!

There is some guy who lives somewhat close to me, with a big lifted truck. It's super duper uncommon here. He has the matching stickers like: only gay cops pull me over and how much he enjoys destroying the planet and shit. Every time i see him i can only just point and laugh, because he can't really park anywhere and you can always tell how he struggles with visability.
The way to restrict them to industrial purposes is to require a CDL or at least a higher level license to drive them. It would make sense too, they're objectively more dangerous so why shouldn't the licensing for them be more strict?
- I think this might be a potential disconnected between rural and urban folks. A lot of trucks are big and stupid; and unsafe. But an old style reasonable pick up doesn’t need a CDL. It’s very useful for moving things that you don’t want to mess up your interior. During the summer my family takes one with a small motorcycle and inflatable kayaks to raft rivers in Colorado; quite useful. But I get it in the cities; even our reasonable sized sedan felt big having the parallel park when I’ve visited them.
- I wouldn't want one myself, but I don't understand trying to ban something just because I don't like it.
  But apparently, that's a popular sentiment
I agree, 90%. That being said, some people can't afford a car that isn't provided by their construction employer. Some people have hobbies that involve moving things (motorcycles, mountain bikes, wood, etc) and can only afford one car. And I'm sure there are reasons I'm not thinking of.
Most people with pickups around me do not need them, but having owned a small S10 years ago for a similar to above reason, I try to see why they exist, and try not to judge if it's not obvious.
All that being said, Why oh why are they so big now?
- You can usually tell the difference, because the tradesperson's truck is full of crap all the time and probably worn out, while the parking lot princess in empty and pristine.
  Lifting is also a strong hint, since it makes the bed very hard to reach. I have seen a lifted pickup with a full bed exactly once since I started paying attention.
- Mountain bikes can easily be carried with a car, motorcycles are normally self propelled and don’t need to a pick up truck to move them and they make trailers for moving them that can be towed by a normal sedan, wood is another thing that’s not normally transported unless you are using the truck for work and can be easily transported by a trailer or a rental truck for infrequent use
Yes, but how will you pose as a tough salt-of-the-earth guy while driving to your HR job?
I rented a Hybrid Toyota Camry over the weekend, that thing was awesome. 18 dollars to refuel for the return.
- My support worker has a hybrid. She puts in fuel, and a full tank lasts for like 900km. Crazy

Superhero movies. Very repetitive and predictable.

Thank you !
- You’re welcome

Most things. Hype is usually just marketing, at least nowadays. I've seen a lot of hypes come and go, and it's always the same playbook.

I agree, they all appear rather insincere now. But maybe that's just because we've grown older?
I bet parents knew the pokemon card thing was selling cardboard for an insane price based on mostly marketing.
Products don't blow up unless they're profitable to sell in the first place. So when I hear everyone going crazy over a new product or concept, I try to analyze what's in it for the businesses.
If it's a general concept that a bunch of different vendors suddenly all start selling online, usually they can be found on alibaba for a fraction of the price by a bunch of niche Chinese companies who's been making them in relatively small volumes for years and only recently did a bunch of "entrepreneurs" discover them and set up their dropshipping operations with associated viral marketing tactics. Fidget spinners were a good example of this.
Or if the product is a food, it usually has a ton of sugar which has been shown to be extremely addictive and subconsciously gets your brain to want not just sugar in general, but the other flavours associated with it so you'll keep wanting more of the same product. Crumble cookies and "Dubai" chocolate come to mind.
Agree. Made a real effort in recent years to question the crap what I really need, and what’s a want vrs a need.
I feel a lot happier not buy stuff upon stuff. I’m trying to buy as much used/second hand as possible.
I don’t understand many of the product hypes. Why would you pay more to endorse someone’s brand. The cups. Like $50 for a cup. That’s crazy, you still drink the same water out of it.

Labubus.

Kids wanting them I get, but the craze among adults for them is baffling to me. And the blind bag mechanic is just a bullshit way to get people to buy more than they actually want in an attempt to collect a full set. It's honestly kind of sad to see so many adults fall for something meant to manipulate children into begging their parents to buy over and over again.

You know something is worth your money when they deliberately obfuscate what you're actually buying.

Luxury items, particularly watches and shoes and shit. Conspicuously ranking your wealth like that is cringe as fuck. "Ah yes, I see you can afford the DoucheKeeper 2121. That's ok I guess, if you can't afford the DoucheKeeper 2424."

It makes far more sense to just dress well below your "status" imo. Real confidence is being above all that vanity, and real intrigue is keeping people guessing about your "status." You want to know what I do and how much money I do or don't have? Get to know me, and you'll discover none of that shit matters.

keeping people guessing about your "status."
Yeah I’m a fan of this. I dress like I never outgrew the 90’s, haven’t had a haircut since covid, and fly first class a lot. It really bugs some of the snobs up there in the front of the plane.
I’ve never been into fashion in the least. I’m a quiet software dev and don’t talk to people.
I can appreciate people enjoying fashion even if it’s not for me. What I don’t understand are the things that are just regular ass items like a tee shirt, but they printed the name of a brand on it and charged a crazy price for it. Nothing else. No actual design or special manufacturing quality. Just the name of a fashion brand that’s famous for… being the name of a fashion brand that sells clothes that… have their name on it. IS EVERYONE PULLING A PRANK ON ME? WHAT IS EVEN GOING ON?
The kind of watch that says "please mug my rich dumb ass" is all I see. (I've never mugged or stole from anyone, it's just the thought that crosses my mind.)
Kind of like the super sensitive car alarms or home alarms that have a voice that loudly announces it's recording. "Hey, I have valuables worth protecting, just to let you know."
Watches are insane. I've seen ones that cost more than a freaking house. And I'm not talking about ones encrusted in diamonds. Just a regular ass looking watch that cost $250k or more.

NFTs

Most celebrities. I know its usually manufactured hype, but I still don't understand people falling for it.

Collectible toys. On top of not getting it, I hate it from an environmental perspective and a wasted resources (incl labor) perspective.

Most things that people seem to get hyped over really. Not big on buying things. Books are an exception but most people aren't hyped about those

It’s been really bewildering and concerning seeing all the crazy consumer crazes online. Maybe this was unfounded, but there was a while where I thought we were starting to wane on consumerism but I guess I was just wrong about that. The internet has just supercharged it. We now have turbo consumerism. Forget about keeping up with the Joneses, you now scroll past 100 of them in your feed and half of them are ~~human billboards~~ influencers.
Oh ho ho I am quite hyped for books ! Silly when you can basically get them free to read on a computer ot e reader and then they weigh nothing but...still prefer realism.
- Physical books are my kryptonite. Nothing hits the same

Any of the vapid and shallow trends. From tiktok “challenges” to the Stanley mug craze. All designed to separate the individual from their money and sense.

Anime profile pictures and wallpapers

Those hunky water bottles. In general why are there so many water bottle trends?

A good water bottle is a friend for life. We have a dozen in the cupboard:
several are plastic, mostly swag but a couple that are for bikes. They're cheap, and one leaks from the lid, but I'm not going to buy another little, metal water bottle just for the bike. Plastic is mostly useless as they don't keep liquids cool.
there are a few workout ones that are just tall cups with lids. Again, plastic; their one use is working out, because they don't break or break things if they get dropped on the treadmill. I hate the lid mechanism.
there are a few metal ones; again, mostly swag. Two are actual thermoses with great insulation, but they're relatively small (16 oz), and their sippy lids are clearly optimized for hot liquids the other metal ones have screw tops and are a PITA to use. In fact, one is my second most recent one, which I replaced because unscrewing the top in the middle of the night was fussy so I'd just leave the top off, except I kept knocking it over by fumbling for it in the dark, spoiling water all over the nightstand and carpet.
we have two glass ones, and one with an electric mixer base that I got for my wife for when she travels, so she can more easily have protein shakes in the morning. The glass ones are insulated and nice, but the tops don't seal and you don't want you drop them, so they just live in the cupboard.
And then there's my prize, the black widow. Isn't she lovely? Oh, wait, sorry, wrong song.
The one I have now, that has taken me decades to refine, is 1 liter - not too large, so it's easy to carry around, but enough so a couple of refills a day are enough. It has a little handle to facilitate carrying. It's metal, and robust. It's vacuum insulated, so it keeps ice water cold all night. And it has a little sippy spout with a sprung button orifice so that when I knock it over it doesn't leak. It's the perfect water bottle, and it took me a couple decades of trial and error to refine my requirements for a water bottle: the size, the mechanism, the material.
A water bottle that meets all of your specific use case needs really is wonderful; it's a pleasure to use, is convenient, and by its nature encourages you to hydrate. Honestly, it's one is those weirdly and unexpectedly useful things that you'd never expect to have as big an impact as it does, that you find yourself using more than any other single gadget you own.
- I can count very few things I use as much a my water bottle on a daily basis. It comes with me everywhere I go.
- Since you have so many plastic water bottles, I'm gonna ask you, a week ago I didn't wash my bottle right away after mixing a protein shake in it (I left it for 5 hours) and now it smells foul. And no matter how many times I wash it, the smell won't go away. Is there something that would help?

Low hanging fruit, but AI. I don't need to explain why, do I?

It's just the latest technological breakthrough that should for all intents and purposes have been a niche and served just a few specific purposes really well, but because the people in charge of tech companies don't actually understand technology and just jump at the most advanced looking thing they see, all the developers are forced to integrate AI into all their products.
"Internet of things" was another one that really pissed me off because it ruined smart devices and home automation as concepts. Things like smart thermostats and light bulbs that should absolutely have used the local network to communicate ended up connected to the internet and using it as their only means of control, which is inferior to local network control in every possible way and is the reason why everyone hates home automation now, and what was once a very promising concept became the symbol of everything wrong with technology. But because IOT was a flashy term that could be jingled like keys in front of a CEO, every product needed to be internet enabled for the devs to not get fired.
I've heard several different reasons, which one is it for you?
Copyright
Water usage
Appeal to tradition
Lack of creativity
Something else?
Also, are you against all AI (such as NPC AI, chess robots, intelligent vacuum cleaners, etc) or specifically LLMs/generative AI?
- I don't buy a lot of the negative hype either, but you didn't list one of the main ones. Their use in spam.
  Lately there have been issues with people submitting AI generated bug reports to bug bounty programs and wasting everyone's time. For this reason a lot of projects are considering shuttering their bug bounty programs entirely. It's just one example of the many that AI-spam has caused.
- 1, 2, 4, power wastage, the hype, the low returns for all the time, energy, and resources spent on a technology that has its uses but is no more a panacea than bitcoin, web4 or any of the other bullshit bubbles that have been ubiquitous since people worked out that venture capitalists will spunk unlimited amounts of money at the latest shiny thing.

AI

There are fools out there who are willing to invest in this hype train. Is it enough for you to understand the hype?
- I do understand their wishful thinking. What I don't understand is their disconnect from reality.

The Chance-Vought F4U Corsair. People fangirl over the reverse gull-wings but I just don't get it. Bending the goddamn wings to fit the the prop on the plan is just a bizarre bandaid for an odd design.

Gimme that P-47 chunky monkey any day

LOTR stuff. Pompous and boring.

I agree. But the hobbit book is good.
How very dare you Sir/Madam!
Why, I'll have you know...
Hmmm, maybe it is?!

Sex

Turns out I'm asexual.

The spicy part is try being asexual yet HOPELESSLY romantic

But aside from THAT -- Brand name clothing.

Most of it doesn't even look good

There was a time the rich dressed decadently, that was conspicuous consumption, but at least it looked pretty and shiny in pictures. Nowadays rich people be buying clothes that look exactly, completely indistinguishable from the discount shop made-in-china artificial-fabric rags everyone else is wearing, but which have a logo printed on them. And that logo is what makes it expensive.

When you say "asexual", do you mean you hate it, or you don't hate it and don't mind your romantic partner doing it with you?
- This varies from ace to ace. With me?
  I am not repulsed but I am violently disinterested
  A partner wants to fuck? Sure, I guess? If it makes them happy and I like them. But like. I'll never go out of my way to try and get sex.

Looking through these comments I don't know what half of this stuff is and I don't think I want to.

My wife's freind came over the other day and asked me if I could fix her new glasses because they were crooked, being polite I said I liked them (they're hideous but to each their own), and she responded "thanks they're D and G, they only cost me $700". These were $700 glasses with no additions. No blue light thing, no scratch resistant stuff.

I don't care for that.

YouTube, celebrities, influencers.

Game of Thrones

I enjoyed it when the author was in charge of the TV series. I watched until the end of the initial series, but after that I never looked back.
Spoilers/explanation below:
Too many things didn't make sense, like how the dragon queen suddenly became a completely different person. How the Lannister siblings made up after hating each others guts, only for the tower to collapse on top of them the same instant. That everyone met their nemesis at the very end. Why anyone would vote for Bran to become the new king when he barely spoke to anyone since he was like 13 years old, and many other inconsistencies like that. The last couple of seasons barely had any story at all, it was mostly about fighting... It was bad.

Streaming like in twitch, podcasts, tiktok, and other "user generated content". I'm not even 40 yet but I really feel like "old man yells at cloud".

Actually, the mere term "content" makes me cringe. You do art? Now it's called content. You are an independent reporter? Now you do content. You like plants? How about turning that into content? Content: you are either consuming it or producing it. Fuck content as a concept. And fuck discoverability algorithms and every clown trying to game them. Fuck social media spoon-feeding brainrot to people. I feel anti-hyped for all that.

I may be dating myself here, but Beanie Babies.

Is that some kind of labubu?
There was a store near me when I was growing up that specialized in Beanie Babies. They also sold Pokémon cards. This was back with first-edition base set, then standard base set.
I never thought Pokémon cards would be the ones to soar in value….

Souls-like games, game streamers, turkey (the meat).

Big butts. I mean the ones featured in "Baby Got Back" were ok. But, today, some people are going crazy with it.

Coffee in the morning.

People be losing their minds over an addition.

I only lose my mind over advanced calculus. That's some rough stuff.
- Almost did lose it over probability distribution
I've had people outright claim caffeine and coffee aren't addicting. It basically ticks all the boxes, from habit-forming chemical dependency to social reinforcement. Out of addictions to have, it's one of the less harmful ones, but it absolutely can form addiction and people who can't function without it are dependent, even if they can overcome it easily.

podcasts, owning an automobile, twitter, following celebrities, being competitive, land ownership, having a degree versus having the knowledge the degree entails, marriage, religion, recycling (beyond that of reducing and reusing), collecting things, fashion, owning the newest of anything once it is released especially for phones and i could come up with more probably but this likely covers at least one thing people who read this are into in one way or another.

Ya got me, I'm super into recycling over here

Pokemon Go

Pretty much everything.

Parry Hotnerd

Harry potnerd?