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New year + tax return tends to lead people to spend a bit more. Anecdotally I'd expect the downward spending trend to continue. Majority of the customers I inte

New year + tax return tends to lead people to spend a bit more. Anecdotally I'd expect the downward spending trend to continue. Majority of the customers I interact with (barista programmer checking in) I know are asking themselves "do I need this?" before they buy. Most have cancelled their Amazon Prime subscription and stopped buying there altogether, which for many was the equivalent of an online shopping spree.

cobookman 8y ago
+1. Noticed this trend as well
- davio 8y ago
  This coincides with Marie Kondo's arrival
  - pas 8y ago
    Could you provide some context? Why is she important for US incomes? Arrival of what kind? Where from / to?
    - dgacmu 8y ago
      It was humor. She advocates asking whether or not an object "brings you joy" before deciding whether or not to buy or keep it. A very popular person on the topic of keeping your home organized.
    - Swizec 8y ago
      Millenials generally speaking are broke, inundated with loans, and the resulting zeitgeist is antimaterialism. Marie Kondo’s popularity is a symptom of this trend. People don’t want to buy crap anymore. That’s why instagram is full of travel pictures not of “I bought a house/car/etc” pictures. Us millenials don’t see possessions as a status symbol anymore but almost as a liability.
      - komali2 8y ago
        The classic embodiment of this was A Twitter trend months ago of people posting pics of the "room of couches you aren't allowed to sit on" in their parents houses, or "cupboard full of dishes we never used."
        abrugsch 8y ago
        was the "room of couches..." trend immediately after an episode of The Goldebergs aired with exactly that scenario? (except the 80's version) also the "stuff we never use" is probably mostly just parents fed up with their kids breaking stuff just by looking at it and they'd like to emerge from parenthood with at least some sentimental items still intact. (source: a parent with 7 and 2 y/o energetic, clumsy boys who I'd very much love to share my own personal memories with lest they be destroyed on contact with one of the whirlwinds of destruction...)
        rootusrootus 8y ago
        This is so very true. I've got an 8- and 6-year old, and we've resorted to using mostly disposable Ikea furniture because it's a lost cause. Even so, in a few years I'm going to have to do a light remodel of the house to fix all the damage.
        Frondo 8y ago
        Anecdotal counterpoint: my friends and I are slowly being given all that stuff we weren't allowed to touch, by our parents who preserved it to "pass it down"....and it's mostly stuff we have no space or need for. A china set? Antique clock? None of us wants it.
        abrugsch 8y ago
        That I get. I have no desire to keep my parents crap but I also don't want my kids destroying my stuff while I can still enjoy it. There is no expectation for them to "inherit" it just respect that I want to keep it. If they actually want any of it great but I'm not forcing anything on them
  - bilkoo 8y ago
    Would make a good South Park episode
    - eli_gottlieb 8y ago
      Wasn't that basically the episode about the 2008 economic crash, where Randy leads the town in a drive towards simplicity by wearing sheets and such?
  - amphibian87 8y ago
    Her book has been out since 2014, I couldn't stomach the show it was too "cute" and slow paced. Book is excellent though.
    - davio 8y ago
      I think her show is the most viral thing I've heard people talking about at work (and my wife's work) since GOT
      - dymk 8y ago
        But the meme lasted for a few weeks tops. I never hear people reference the “does it bring you joy” thing anymore.
  - smacktoward 8y ago
    When the student is ready, the teacher appears :-D
  - moosey 8y ago
    She applied a basic rule for which I buy anything that isn't essential. It might seem like a dumb rule, but discovering that buying stuff doesn't make you happy, and finding a way to break the buying stuff addiction, is really fantastic to me, especially because I believe that contentment and happiness are essential measures of economic success. I hope it spreads quickly. I think it will help a lot of people who own too much stuff, and find themselves exhausted due to it.
empath75 8y ago
Just personally, I'm piling money into savings because I'm concerned about layoffs, etc, once the economy slows down. For people who have only known 200k kubernetes remote jobs, you should be prepared for everything to turn on a dime..
- komali2 8y ago
  Saw this happen in Houston in 2014. Engineers that had started their careers just after the housing crisis bounced back were sitting cozy on their 150k/year (in Houston that's gobs) roles, not really putting much into savings because "there's always Wells to drill." When prices dropped from 90$ to 44$ a barrel, I saw candidates do some pretty stupid shit. Nuked the reminder of their savings on a new f150 was a classic drama played out over 2 weeks that my whole team was involved trying to talk him down in. Others had to move in with their parents, take roles in deer Park that were something like 2.5hr commutes one way, drop everything for a Saudi role and move out there... Their freedom of choice was essentially yanked away. The only one that seemed to be handling it well was a fresh 3 years in engineer. No girlfriend, kids, house, and buckets of savings. He moved to Vietnam and weathered the storm on a beach, taking tiny sips of his savings. This was a time when rates dropped from 160, 150/hr to 60, sometimes lower. Some people had to take rate cuts to keep their roll (I didn't even know that was a thing. I assumed layoffs was the only tool in the belt-tightening toolkit). Somehow a big Operator (think shell, Exxon) got a new project out for a refinery once, which resulted in something like 50 different engineering and design rolls, of which my agency locked down iirc 10? We had, in the city alone, 600 applicants, about half a good fit for the job (and the other half decent just not the exact fit). I don't know if the same thing could happen in my new life as a web dev, but the lesson stuck with me. When I hop on LinkedIn and see 1000 new frontend roles, it seems hopping out here in the bay area. But I also watched hack reactor crank out 60 more kids 6 weeks after my batch, and 60 more 6 weeks after that... So maybe I got lucky, got in while the getting is still hot. Anyway, save your money.
  - at-fates-hands 8y ago
    >> I don't know if the same thing could happen in my new life as a web dev, Doubtful TBH "Front-end dev" here in the Midwest. Even when the economy tanked in 2008, I barely noticed and I was working as a contractor. I still had recruiters calling for contract work. We had a lot more people come into the industry via the banks and small businesses who went under in the crash, but even then, it wasn't a huge deal. I'm always hedging my bets the bottom will fall out eventually. Even when people thought our roles would drop off, whoosh suddenly everybody wanted to convert all their stuff to Javascript apps and everything took off again. Right now, more back-en devs are getting into the JS scene and "full stack" development is back in vogue. I still concentrate heavily on the UI/UX side and have been picking up JS work more and more. There's such a shortage of good JS developers that if you're a mid to senior level JS developer, you're going to have tons of options and a solid future. If you don't want to do contract work, land a stable role at a large corporation and hunker down for a few years and see which way the wind blows then.
random_kris 8y ago
sorry for a weird question but how does one decide to be a barista programmer? is it because you like being barista or is it because programming doesn't pay enough?
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- cevn 8y ago
  Maybe he is programming baristas. Like Westworld style.
  - SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
    That explains the name recognition. "Could I get your name?" "Bob." "Sorry, I can't help with that!"
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- asatterfield54 8y ago
  Burn out and tired of writing CRUD all day in an office.
  - AnimalMuppet 8y ago
    Honest question. Is being a barrista better, or just different?
  - random_kris 8y ago
    oh I get you... I've been writting CRUD applications for past 2 years. It gets boring some times, but also quite challenging quite sometimes... Been wondering how would it be to work another proffesion. Like now I work as a programmer and don't have any hobies outside of computers but I could be working something else and do programming as a hobby... definitely worse for future money wise...

cobookman 8y ago

+1. Noticed this trend as well

davio 8y ago
This coincides with Marie Kondo's arrival
- pas 8y ago
  Could you provide some context? Why is she important for US incomes? Arrival of what kind? Where from / to?
  - dgacmu 8y ago
    It was humor. She advocates asking whether or not an object "brings you joy" before deciding whether or not to buy or keep it. A very popular person on the topic of keeping your home organized.
  - Swizec 8y ago
    Millenials generally speaking are broke, inundated with loans, and the resulting zeitgeist is antimaterialism. Marie Kondo’s popularity is a symptom of this trend. People don’t want to buy crap anymore. That’s why instagram is full of travel pictures not of “I bought a house/car/etc” pictures. Us millenials don’t see possessions as a status symbol anymore but almost as a liability.
    - komali2 8y ago
      The classic embodiment of this was A Twitter trend months ago of people posting pics of the "room of couches you aren't allowed to sit on" in their parents houses, or "cupboard full of dishes we never used."
      - abrugsch 8y ago
        was the "room of couches..." trend immediately after an episode of The Goldebergs aired with exactly that scenario? (except the 80's version) also the "stuff we never use" is probably mostly just parents fed up with their kids breaking stuff just by looking at it and they'd like to emerge from parenthood with at least some sentimental items still intact. (source: a parent with 7 and 2 y/o energetic, clumsy boys who I'd very much love to share my own personal memories with lest they be destroyed on contact with one of the whirlwinds of destruction...)
        rootusrootus 8y ago
        This is so very true. I've got an 8- and 6-year old, and we've resorted to using mostly disposable Ikea furniture because it's a lost cause. Even so, in a few years I'm going to have to do a light remodel of the house to fix all the damage.
        Frondo 8y ago
        Anecdotal counterpoint: my friends and I are slowly being given all that stuff we weren't allowed to touch, by our parents who preserved it to "pass it down"....and it's mostly stuff we have no space or need for. A china set? Antique clock? None of us wants it.
        abrugsch 8y ago
        That I get. I have no desire to keep my parents crap but I also don't want my kids destroying my stuff while I can still enjoy it. There is no expectation for them to "inherit" it just respect that I want to keep it. If they actually want any of it great but I'm not forcing anything on them
- bilkoo 8y ago
  Would make a good South Park episode
  - eli_gottlieb 8y ago
    Wasn't that basically the episode about the 2008 economic crash, where Randy leads the town in a drive towards simplicity by wearing sheets and such?
- amphibian87 8y ago
  Her book has been out since 2014, I couldn't stomach the show it was too "cute" and slow paced. Book is excellent though.
  - davio 8y ago
    I think her show is the most viral thing I've heard people talking about at work (and my wife's work) since GOT
    - dymk 8y ago
      But the meme lasted for a few weeks tops. I never hear people reference the “does it bring you joy” thing anymore.
- smacktoward 8y ago
  When the student is ready, the teacher appears :-D
- moosey 8y ago
  She applied a basic rule for which I buy anything that isn't essential. It might seem like a dumb rule, but discovering that buying stuff doesn't make you happy, and finding a way to break the buying stuff addiction, is really fantastic to me, especially because I believe that contentment and happiness are essential measures of economic success. I hope it spreads quickly. I think it will help a lot of people who own too much stuff, and find themselves exhausted due to it.

empath75 8y ago

Just personally, I'm piling money into savings because I'm concerned about layoffs, etc, once the economy slows down. For people who have only known 200k kubernetes remote jobs, you should be prepared for everything to turn on a dime..

komali2 8y ago
Saw this happen in Houston in 2014. Engineers that had started their careers just after the housing crisis bounced back were sitting cozy on their 150k/year (in Houston that's gobs) roles, not really putting much into savings because "there's always Wells to drill." When prices dropped from 90$ to 44$ a barrel, I saw candidates do some pretty stupid shit. Nuked the reminder of their savings on a new f150 was a classic drama played out over 2 weeks that my whole team was involved trying to talk him down in. Others had to move in with their parents, take roles in deer Park that were something like 2.5hr commutes one way, drop everything for a Saudi role and move out there... Their freedom of choice was essentially yanked away. The only one that seemed to be handling it well was a fresh 3 years in engineer. No girlfriend, kids, house, and buckets of savings. He moved to Vietnam and weathered the storm on a beach, taking tiny sips of his savings. This was a time when rates dropped from 160, 150/hr to 60, sometimes lower. Some people had to take rate cuts to keep their roll (I didn't even know that was a thing. I assumed layoffs was the only tool in the belt-tightening toolkit). Somehow a big Operator (think shell, Exxon) got a new project out for a refinery once, which resulted in something like 50 different engineering and design rolls, of which my agency locked down iirc 10? We had, in the city alone, 600 applicants, about half a good fit for the job (and the other half decent just not the exact fit). I don't know if the same thing could happen in my new life as a web dev, but the lesson stuck with me. When I hop on LinkedIn and see 1000 new frontend roles, it seems hopping out here in the bay area. But I also watched hack reactor crank out 60 more kids 6 weeks after my batch, and 60 more 6 weeks after that... So maybe I got lucky, got in while the getting is still hot. Anyway, save your money.
- at-fates-hands 8y ago
  >> I don't know if the same thing could happen in my new life as a web dev, Doubtful TBH "Front-end dev" here in the Midwest. Even when the economy tanked in 2008, I barely noticed and I was working as a contractor. I still had recruiters calling for contract work. We had a lot more people come into the industry via the banks and small businesses who went under in the crash, but even then, it wasn't a huge deal. I'm always hedging my bets the bottom will fall out eventually. Even when people thought our roles would drop off, whoosh suddenly everybody wanted to convert all their stuff to Javascript apps and everything took off again. Right now, more back-en devs are getting into the JS scene and "full stack" development is back in vogue. I still concentrate heavily on the UI/UX side and have been picking up JS work more and more. There's such a shortage of good JS developers that if you're a mid to senior level JS developer, you're going to have tons of options and a solid future. If you don't want to do contract work, land a stable role at a large corporation and hunker down for a few years and see which way the wind blows then.

random_kris 8y ago

sorry for a weird question but how does one decide to be a barista programmer? is it because you like being barista or is it because programming doesn't pay enough?

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
cevn 8y ago
Maybe he is programming baristas. Like Westworld style.
- SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
  That explains the name recognition. "Could I get your name?" "Bob." "Sorry, I can't help with that!"
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
asatterfield54 8y ago
Burn out and tired of writing CRUD all day in an office.
- AnimalMuppet 8y ago
  Honest question. Is being a barrista better, or just different?
- random_kris 8y ago
  oh I get you... I've been writting CRUD applications for past 2 years. It gets boring some times, but also quite challenging quite sometimes... Been wondering how would it be to work another proffesion. Like now I work as a programmer and don't have any hobies outside of computers but I could be working something else and do programming as a hobby... definitely worse for future money wise...