Good morning, Apexians! It’s Wednesday, money nerds, and today we’re sharing a collection of pieces curated from everybody’s favorite time-sink: Reddit. I have a love-hate relationship with that site. There’s a lot of great stuff to discover, but there’s also a lot of noise.
Today, let’s look at some of the good stuff. Here are few recent Reddit posts that I think you all will enjoy.
“I just bought a used car for the first time. Here’s what I learned.” [/r/personalfinance] — “I just bought a used car for the first time this past weekend. While I am very happy about the car and I think I found a good deal, honestly I found the entire car buying experience terrible so I figured I would try to share what I learned from this experience. Keep in mind that this is really a write-up about buying a used car from a dealership and not a private seller.” [See also: the /r/personalfinance vehicle wiki]
The marketing genius of Lil Nas X. [/r/Entrepreneur] — “Lil Nas X was a college dropout sleeping on his sister’s couch with a negative balance in his Wells Fargo account. Five months later he’d broken Mariah Carey’s record for the most consecutive weeks at number one. This post tells the story.” Fascinating read about how the success of last year’s biggest song blew up thanks to carefully planned use of social media.
How did the Inca Empire function without money? [/r/AskHistorians] — “The Inka state functioned by what we (most historians and archaeologists) understand to long-standing cultural conventions related to reciprocity. This study relates to a larger body of literature in economic anthropology (among other specializations) that study the ideas related to ‘gifts’, particularly how they create obligations to give, to receive, and to repay, sometimes in the absence of (or in spite of) a monetary system.” Fascinating.
“Am I the asshole for saying I got my dress at Goodwill in front of my boyfriend’s boss?” [/r/AmItheAsshole] — “Recently my boyfriend had a big company dinner with his law firm, all the lawyers and their spouses would be there. I said I’d go, and I had a nice formal dress to wear. I’d gotten it at a Goodwill in the wealthy part of town and it was from a really upscale brand…So at the party, a couple of the lawyer’s girlfriends and wives complimented my dress and one woman asked where it was from.” Interesting discussion. Some people think used clothing is gauche. Others see nothing wrong with it.
Lastly, via /r/OTR (for old-time radio), here’s a 90-minute PBS documentary from 1972 on the history of radio comedy. I realize that few of you Apexians are likely to watch this, but I’ll bet there are a few of you who, like me, will enjoy this
That’s it for Wednesday. It’s all downhill from here!