The persistent bog and obsession of mindless consumerism

Back in January 2024 I purchased a Raspberry Pi 5 8GB version, assembled it, and haven’t used it at all.

The other day I saw online that they have released a Raspberry Pi 5 16GB model and it is £115. For my purposes, performance is the same as I don’t and won’t use it.

And yet, I sit here and I stare at it in my ecommerce shopping basket. I think of the excitement of when it arrives, and setting it up again, and using it for a bit before it gets put next to the 8GB version on the dusty shelf of zero fucks.

What is the purpose of this? If I had not seen that there was now a fabled 16GB version, I would not have this affliction with it, but it would quite simply have been something else that i stare at.

I have a number of safeguards in place to stop me spanking all my money up the wall on pure shite, and in the grand scheme of things, £115 isn’t that much, but I have used the excuse of “I can’t afford it” for stuff that I really need that is less than this.

So, what the fuck is all this, then? Clearly I’m impulsed by the cheap effect of a higher number being better.

The fact is is that it is worthless and means nothing unless you have a specific need for it. Is this how I can rationalise myself out of moving my mind on and perhaps motivating myself to wash the dishes instead?

This thread is the discussion of any “spank-it-up-the-wall” purchases that you are considering, just to confirm to yourself if they make sense or not.

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:rofl: I am like this when it comes to tools :hammer_and_wrench: :toolbox:… When I was young in the old country I had a garage where I was fixing up my old cars and loved to go to second hand auctions to purchase tools (on a tight budget)… Now when I see some great tools I wish I could have afforded then, I get this urge to buy them… but what can I use them for in an apartment in Taipei :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: So far I have been semi successful in stopping myself from throwing away money, but sometimes it is hard :rofl:

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Yeah, for sure. Under my bed I have axle stands, a trolley jack, an impact wrench, full set of mechanical hand tools, roof bars, snow chains, and parts including a starter motor, alternator, all the belts, control arms, drop links, tie-rod ends, coolant reservoirs, exhaust hanging brackets…

I also have four bicycles in pieces in the wardrobe, along with various sets of wheels, handlebars and saddles.

On the computer-front I probably have about 30, each of which would be sufficient to do what I need.

What cars? I had four Volvo’s at one point, I had to cut back as people kept calling the police about them.

I’ve also been looking around to buy a decent Husqvarna chainsaw. I don’t have any outdoor space, but I’l like to have a chainsaw.

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I bought a canoe once. Because I could. I felt good. Then I didn’t use or and wouldn’t sell it. Then I felt bad about it. Then I sold it. Felt happy again.

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Yeah, that’s fine, and makes sense, because you did it ONCE.

How about FOUR canoes?

Can I have four girlfriends instead?

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First, there was the canoe. Then there was the ice fishing gear. Then there was the pinball machine, then the snow blower.

Life is just canoes all the way down.

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I get a bit like this with ‘Aldi special buys’ - for those unfamiliar with Aldi they sell random stuff weekly but only have limited stock and it’s roughly a yearly cycle.
If I don’t buy now I have to wait a year!

To be fair thought their products are generally 30%-60% cheaper than their brand name equivalents. And it’s pretty obvious their products are manufactured buy big brands with a different label - they look and operate exactly the same.

Most of it has been stuff that we wanted/needed that we didn’t want to pay a lot for so it’s been successful in that way.

TV, coffee machine, mattress, dryer, washing machine, countless knick knacks, electric grill (probably the only thing we never use), gazebo, probably other stuff I’ve forgotten about.

I recently replaced my macbook air 2020 i5 with a refurbished mac mini m2 mostly because my macbook shit itself whenever zoom was on. I use zoom maybe once every 2 months :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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Yeah, up shit creek without a paddle

That just sounds like effective and prudent shopping, to me!

I bought a Macbook Pro M2 Max because I wanted to use its developer toolkit to emulate the Windows version of Cyberpunk 2077. I already have the game on a games console. The laptop cost me $5000 USD. And they’ve just announced that they’re releasing a native Mac version of the game anyway that will just run normally without the emulation pack.

So the fucking laptop is in the cupboard and I don’t play the game anymore because 700 hours on one game (on the games console, I didn’t even play it on the macbook once I got it working!) is enough.

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I have the previous gen iPad Pro. The bigger screen one with the best screen.

They just released the iPad Pro with the M4 chip and OLED screen.

I originally bought the iPad for work. But I ended never doing any work on it. It’s only use is movies when I travel on flights. I download a bunch of horror films because I love them but my SO doesn’t so it my chance to watch them.

The only benefit I have is the OLED screen update. I don’t do anything on it for the new chip to matter. But I keep wanted to trade mine in for the new one. And every time I watch a movie in scenes that are dark…I keep thinking in my head this is where the OLED screen would look so good :blush:

Prudently buying stuff I don’t need :rofl:

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I would like to buy a nice quality spanner set. I’m sick of stripping every damned nut with this cheap shifting spanner.

I was gifted a 1/4 inch Snap-on socket set when I was a teenager for completing work experience. I’m sure it was fucking expensive, but that has done so much over the last 20 years, I owe it my career, I really do, even though I’m not a mechanic.

Blue Point are the cheaper ones.

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Does screen size bother you? You could buy a used/refurbished iPhone XS Max, they have OLED, bit smaller screen though. Can get one for less than 200 quid.

I have the iPhone X, first one with OLED, and it is so good in the dark. I’m not really into all that, but it’s definitely a noticable upgrade from the previous iPhone generations. Much better than my PC displays, too.

I don’t think I can watch it on the iPhone now I’m used to iPad. It’s been great for travel and battery life is great

I’m actually at a stage where I want quality, done with cheap Chi crap.

Yeah, although there’s cheap Chi crap, and expensive Chi crap, and also expensive Chi good stuff.

Some of the tooling from Japan is extremely high quality.

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I watch a youtuber, Geoff buys cars, and he loves volvos. 30 year old volvo estates. I now spend my time looking on ebay for 30 year old volvos and Saabs. The thought of my wife killing me stops me buying one though.

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Install pihole (blocks ads etc) on it while you’re figuring life out. The throbbing engine of a Pi 5 is overkill - I use a Pi 3 for mine with no issues or slowdown at all - and pihole is frankly outstanding.

Another useful one is MagicMirror. I use it as a digital photo frame + calendar + weather forecast, again on an old Pi 3.

But to the topic at hand - I have a problem with Kickstarter. Such a sucker for all that creative potential. Board games (which I can’t find the time to play) and books (which I do find the time to read).

I used to have a problem with digital games libraries, until one day collapsing under the realisation that despite the Ultima collection on Gog being only half a pfennig or whatever, I’m never going to play them again and that the siren call of nostalgia must remain just that, because we can never go home.

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I actually recently just bought a humble Allen key set of theirs’, well Bahco. Feels so heavy in the hand, quality stuff.