This is very much a Bad Take. Do you think Lewis Hamilton changes his own oil? What about Jay Leno, does he maintain all 286 of his vehicles, himself? Do you think Jerry Seinfeld or Patrick Dempsey rotate their own tires? All of these cars are enthusiast owned.

Dead/dying is a complete exaggeration IMO. I know more people in their 20's and 30's that can’t operate a computer with basic proficiency than those who can. Go to a rural area or heavy farming state and you’ll realize that what you said is not even close to true.

In 2016-ish, the Nielsen Norman Group and OECD found…

Great distinction - my Audi has a pretty thick user guide to the vehicle, but it’s not a Hayne’s repair manual. I don’t even think it has a wiring diagram.

Fully agree. For example: Change wipers or cabin air filter are 5 minute jobs, do it myself with cost of parts.

“Read The F%#@g Manual works on everything. Provided the manufacturer actually puts a useful manual together.”

While you’re not wrong, how many more cars are these people buying?

Hell, I work in IT, we get people from their mid 20s thru retirement who fall under that catagory. 60% of our help desk calls are things that are an easy Google search so sort out, or a simple search in our internal IT wiki where we have documentation where we rewrite Windowsese or iPadeese into “normal person words” t…

Capable, yes, but willing? That was the crux of his argument. If they are willing, it bet they aren’t Cadillac people. 

Ding ding ding! The value of time. It didn’t really hit me until several years ago when I started taking freelance work and charged by the hour - that really helped me quantify what my time was actually worth, and what people were willing to pay for my time. It helped me create this highly technical algorithm:

This is an argument I have with many. The value of my time.

I know plenty of people in their late 60s or 70s (like my folks) that just don’t have the appetite to look this up or figure out how to do it. Just because they’re capable of it, like my dad who’s a friggin’ engineer, doesn’t mean they want to spend their time doing it. That’s why dealerships will still be around.

Exactly - so you see my point. I’ve certainly managed to wire together servers or figure out how to set up remote logins so I can access my data while I’m on work travel, but why would I do it myself when I can have my IT department do it for me?

you shouldn’t need to google how to do regular maintenance or service on any vehicle to be honest. Read The F%#@g Manual works on everything. Provided the manufacturer actually puts a useful manual together. The owner manual for my Volt was thick and even had a PDF version available to owners.

my old mercedes diesels…

Raise your hand if you are of a certain age and you’ve gotten a call from your parents/grandparents/C-Suite boss asking you to do something simple like, turn a Word doc into a PDF, or reset their WiFi password, or update their iPhone, all things easily Googled. 1..2..3...okay that’s everyone in the crowd, then.

Raise your hand if you are of a certain age and you’ve gotten a call from your parents/grandparents/C-Suite boss asking you to do something simple like, turn a Word doc into a PDF, or reset their WiFi password, or update their iPhone, all things easily Googled. 1..2..3...okay that’s everyone in the crowd, then.

You know, I was just browsing Reverb for cheap-but-cool pawnshop guitars and I realized something similar has happened in the world of guitars. Here’s a Harmony Rebel from the early 70s:

I work in advertising (commercial production) and I can tell you exactly why: people take themselves too seriously nowadays.

In another life, I also worked in advertising (as an account manager, aka a “suit”). My observation is that art directors seemed to become more important than writers, and this led to more self-indulgent advertising. Visual impact and creativity for its own sake was prioritized over everything else. It seemed to me…

I can tell you exactly why: people take themselves too seriously nowadays.

Praise be to Tom Petty, ain’t this the truth. Self-importance is the great disease of our time.