Products That Failed Because They Were Way Ahead Of Their Time
Reddit user kingpin000 asked: 'What failed when it was initially released, but turned out to be ahead of its time years later?'
It is not uncommon in this world for people to be underappreciated or even ridiculed for their work because they were ahead of their time. Nicolaus Copernicus was mocked for his theory that the universe was heliocentric. Jackson Polluck's art was only revered posthumously.
This is true for many things, including inventions, movies, video games, and even restaurants.
Redditors know this all too well. They have identified what things failed when they were initially released but turned out to be ahead of its time, and are eager to share.
It all started when Redditor kingpin000 asked:
"What failed when it was initially released, but turned out to be ahead of its time years later?"
Dual Uses
"Viagra. Fascinating history. It was developed as a blood pressure medicine in the 80s. The bonerific side effect was “embarrassing” and “unwanted” in the 80s, but desired a decade or so later when sex became less taboo."
"So, it failed as a mainstream blood pressure pill, but succeeded as a boner pill."
– Myzyri
"It's actually used as a blood pressure medication still, but it's for the more rare Pulmonary Hypertension."
– Blueshark25
That's Why They're Called Sticky Notes
"The glue that became part of Post-Its. The guy who invented them was trying to create a stronger glue for the aerospace industry, but the adhesive he created was a weak adhesive. Years later one of his colleagues used that adhesive to create a bookmark that didn't fall out of the book he was reading. Eventually, that idea became Post-Its."
– mom_with_an_attitude
"If I recall the story correctly, it was a hymn book which had delicate pages."
"The Post-Its adhesive worked great on it by not ripping or ruining the pages."
– teems
Pre-Spotify
"I always feel like the Zune and their music model was ahead of its time. 10 dollars month for unlimited downloads while at the time you were paying 1 dollar per single. Now everyone just uses Spotify for the same thing."
– sausagepizza
"You also got to keep 10 of the songs you downloaded at the end of each month. It was essentially paying for 10 songs with as free streaming on top."
– evanzknigh39
If Only They Waited
"Touch screens."
"Yes they are everywhere now but the Buicks 1986 model had one, and most cars today have it."
"Hell, the concept was developed in 1965!!!"
– BotherDesperate7169
"Microsoft pushed a tablet computer about 5 years or so before the iPad got released. It failed miserably and they quickly gave up on the idea."
– saugoof
Almost, But Not Quite
"Vine. They were almost TikTok, but weren’t."
– Gauzey
"I don’t understand why Vine died and Tik Tok lives?"
– kapt_so_krunchy
"Because Vine was ahead of its time."
– MrBoomf
The Big Screen
"The movie Blade Runner."
– Agreeable_Pizza93
"Shawshank flopped in the theaters. It's a classic because TNT began airing it because it was cheap. Boys grew up watching Shawshank. Now it's one of IMDb ten greatest films."
"We can also look at It's a Wonderful Life."
– Econoj
"I've said it on here before somewhere. But The Thing went from being an absolute critical bomb at the time... to being one of the most lauded (and rightfully so) horror sci films ever created now. Specific tastes aside, anyone who enjoys horror probably has The Thing in their top 10."
– 10019245
Can't Believe This Flopped
"Bluetooth was released with a huge fanfare and then fizzled for a few years before it really took off."
– FearlessTomatillo911
"This should be a huge one! It flopped on the market for a long time before someone figured out how to use it correctly and now it’s a staple for electronics."
– ballnout
Just When He Got Rid Of It...
"Debit cards. My dad got one in the 70’s when they were a new idea and nobody seemed to understand them and didn’t take them. He finally got rid of his. Now……"
– sas5814
My Favorite Childhood Toy
"Slime (silly putty). originally, it was an attempt to replace rubber during WW2."
– pupunhaLover
Vroom, Vroom
"Electric car."
"German engineer Andreas Flocken built the first real electric car in 1888. The first electric car in the United States was developed in 1890–91 by William Morrison of Des Moines, Iowa; the vehicle was a six-passenger wagon capable of reaching a speed of 23 km/h (14 mph)."
– george_sg
What Might've Been
"Google Glass the biggest argument against it was ppl being so angry about the wearers filming them. Here we are 10+ years later and everyone films everything everywhere they go. And we have ppl wearing GoPros and other klunky cameras all the time."
"The Google Glass offered AR, filming, assistant functionally, map and web access all in an easy to wear and use piece of tech that was also super cool and futuristic. I think if it had taken off we would have even more advanced models now. It was just WAY too ahead of it's time for widespread adoption. I think it would be wildly popular now."
– JubalHarshawII
For Man's Best Friend
"Pets.com. Everyone laughed at the idea after the tech bubble burst. Chewy.com is worth $10B today."
– Bishop_Pickerling
"If there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that animal lovers will drop some serious cash."
– FunAdministration334
Shut Up And Drive
"The Sinclair C5 electric vehicle. Complete flop in 1985, but now a thriving hobby as many people are upgrading them with modern batteries, motors, disc brakes, etc. So much fun to drive."
– TheKingOfDub
"Sinclair C5."
"Can't help but feel had it been succesful, the following iterations would be superior to the e-bikes we have now."
– SmeeegHeead
Eye Of The Beholder
"Van Gogh's paintings. Amy Pond from Doctor Who knew how good he was, but none of Vincent's contemporaries did, and he eventually died by his own hand."
– tunghoy
Poor Van Gogh. He's my favorite artist!
I'm glad he's appreciated now, even if he wasn't in his own time.
(And this is exactly why Doctor Who's Amy Pond was my favorite companion!)
People Who Were Vilified In Their Time But Were Proven Right In The End
Reddit user fuzzycuffs asked: 'Who was vilified in their time but in hindsight was completely right?'
We've all heard of Thomas Edison's process of inventing the lightbulb and the Wright Brothers' many attempts at inventing the first flyable airplane. We've even heard of the ridicule they heard of their ahead-of-their-time ideas.
But there are so many other examples of major scientific findings that were heavily argued against when they were first presented.
Redditor fuzzycuffs asked:
"Who was vilified in their time but in hindsight was completely right?"
Lead Contamination
"Doctor Clair Cameron Patterson not only discovered the true age of the Earth with his research in Lead-dating, but during this process, he accidentally discovered the dangers of lead contamination."
"Then he went, 'Wait, we’re putting this s**t in gasoline, cans, paint, etc.' He then began campaigning against lead in everyday products. In particular, he targeted the gasoline industry."
"You can imagine how that went in the courtroom. He was vilified, excluded, and slandered but kept pushing for lead to be removed from gasoline."
"It took decades, but obviously, lead was removed from gasoline almost entirely by 1990."
- honeybeebryce
The Importance of Scrubbing Out
"Joseph Lister, one of the first doctors to publicly endorse germ theory and recommend disinfection."
"At the time, surgeons would literally move from an amputation to an autopsy to the delivery room, using the same tools often without even cleaning the gore from their hands and clothes."
"When Lister recommended comprehensive disinfection between procedures, nearly the whole British medical community laughed at him. He spent years as a pariah gathering data from his own practice until he could finally prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that his methods reduced post-operation infection by a staggering rate."
"Now he's known as 'the father of modern surgery.'"
- SirKedyn
The Existence of Pangaea
"The guy who came up with the theory of Pangaea and continental drift."
- LABARATI
"Alfred Wegener. Not only that, we now have theories that Pangea was only one of the many supercontinents that have existed throughout the eons: Nuna, Rodinia, Pannotia..."
- Lihkhun
The Truth Behind Ulcers
"Barry Marshall (and also Robin Warren his co-researcher)."
"Forever, the cause of peptic ulcers was believed to be stress, spicy food, and too much acid production. They believed it was actually of bacterial origin."
"No one believed them, they were ridiculed because the belief was that bacteria couldn't survive in the acidic environment of the stomach."
"Not until Barry took a cocktail of H. pylori bacteria, which caused him to have massive inflammation of the stomach which was found to be colonized with the bacteria, but a course of antibiotics later and it was gone."
"One Nobel prize later and now the treatment of peptic ulcers is turned on its head, and instead of months or years of discomfort it can often be sorted with a week or two courses of antibiotics."
- Djiinjja-Ninja
Unalive Infectious Diseases
"Stanley Prusiner. Everyone who was anyone in science knew that proteins couldn't be an infectious agent. They weren't even alive!"
"He suffered so much mockery and skepticism... until the mad cow disease, and kuru etc., were found to be precisely what he had described."
- Common-Wish-2227
Medical Cross-Contamination
"Ignaz Semmelweis. The world didn’t know about germs yet, but he saw that way less women were dying from childbirth when midwives attended the births than when doctors did (doctors were coming from autopsies and wrecking women’s s**t)."
"Ignaz suggested they start washing their hands, and people lost their f**king minds. Doctors ridiculed him and everyone hated him. He had a 'nervous breakdown,' was committed to an insane asylum, beaten by the guards, and died from a gangrenous wound as a result of the beating."
- AhemExcuseMeSir
Sports and Steroids
"The journalists who maintained Lance Armstrong was doping when he was winning the Tour de France. I remember they were mocked because they admittedly went to extremes hunting for evidence. I remember reports of them sifting through Armstrong's trash."
"Lance Armstrong was a great story, a testicular cancer survivor who beat the disease and went on to set the record for most Tour de France victories (was it 7?). He was untouchable. Anyone contesting he was cheating was shamed."
"I remember the journalists investigating him were mostly French, so they were dismissed because they were sour that an American was breaking the Tour de France records. I remember other Tour winners such as Greg Le Mond and Floyd Landis also contesting that Armstrong was cheating, and both being silenced/shamed."
"Landis had tested positive himself for doping so he wasn't considered a reliable source. I remember with Le Mond they dug into his history and brought up child abuse he suffered as a result of him making claims against Armstrong."
"Turns out they were all right."
- SultanofShiraz
Tragic Genetic Defect
"Patricia Stallings comes to mind."
"She was convicted of poisoning her first child. She gave birth again in prison, the kid got taken away, and the kid also died."
"Instead of poisoning, it has since been found it was a genetic defect that had similar effects as poisoning with antifreeze."
- Wisely_0904
Radical Equality
"One of the lesser-known ones is Hellen Keller. Her story of overcoming her disabilities as a young woman was often taught to children, but her adult life was largely excluded because of her 'radical' ideas at the time which involved pushing for Black rights, anti-lynching laws, early support of birth control, supporting liberal socialism, and she even co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union."
- ObeseMorese
Overly Sweet Food
"John Yudkin was a food scientist who tried hard to push the idea that sugar caused heart disease and obesity amongst other conditions. He suggested a low-carb diet for weight loss in 1958."
"The sugar industry paid scientists like Ansel Keys and D. Mark Hegsted to downplay this connection and suggest that dietary fat caused obesity and heart disease. Massive lobbying helped pro-sugar scientists to become advisors to the government and officially suggest a low-fat diet to prevent heart disease."
"Taking fat out of food makes it taste bad, so what do they add? More sugar, causing the food to be unhealthier. The demonizing of fat lasted well into the 2000s and often still persists to this day."
- Fallenangel152
Copernicus Called
"Nicolaus Copernicus theorized that the planets actually circled the sun instead of the other way around. The church initially accepted heliocentricacy but banned his views in the 1600s."
- buckmaster86
"He will forever be remembered for setting up one of my favorite insults of all time: 'Copernicus called. It turns out you're not the center of the universe.'"
- GullibleToe_9909
Unfiltered Water
"John Snow. He tried to remove the handle of a water pump in London that was drawing its water downstream from a sewage pipe. People who drew water from the pump caught cholera."
- PsychologyStock8353
No Nuclear Ruin
"Stanislav Petrov. More people need to know his name, he literally, like quite literally saved the world."
"He saved the world from nuclear ruin, simply because he was stubborn and refused to believe the computing error. He went against his position orders and was consequently sacked by the USSR and lived an isolated life. Not necessarily vilified by all, but vilified by the USSR and ignored by the West. It put some respect on his name."
"And he didn't even win a Nobel peace prize, died in 2017. I recommend watching 'Stanislav Petrov, the man who saved the world.'"
- Weebla
Reluctant Darwinism
"Charles Darwin. There’s a whole book on how scared he was to publish his work because he knew he’d be hated for it. The Reluctant Mr. Darwin by David Quammen."
- catmandude123
Too Soon, But Also Not
"The Deep-sea exploration community warning OceanGate against ocean tourism. OceanGate basically told them to mind their business."
- redman9000
As painful as many of these revelations are, this whole series is a great reminder of the fact that we, as individuals and as a society and as a global community, will never know everything.
We'll never stop learning, and sometimes, no matter how extreme the consequences, we will be wrong.
People Who Always Overthink Everything Break Down The Time That Actually Worked In Their Favor
Sometimes what might appear as too much to others is just right for you.
And more often than not those of us who overplan, overthink, and can be perceived as "over the top and too much" end up being vindicated in the end. Even to our own shock.
Planning and plotting and being overprepared is a the scout's motto. It should be a life motto, because another important life truth is... you just never know.
Redditor u/lawofdox18wanted to hear about the times life has turned out for the best by surprise by asking:
Overthinkers of Reddit, what unlikely scenario actually came true that you were completely prepared for because you are an overthinker?
I always over-shop. Because what if the store suddenly gets set on fire on the day I need toilet paper. When I gotta go, I gotta go. I can't run an extra block when I gotta go, and all because buying in bulk seems strange to others. Take a guess who was already toilet paper stocked pre-pandemic.
Needle & Thread
Excited Jump GIF by Megan BatoonGiphy"I always carry a small sewing kit whenever I go to a wedding. I have sewed two brides into their dresses so far!"
Middle School Days
"All the teachers at the Middle School I taught at knew I was a pack rat and one day a kid split his pants and the school counselor came to me and said 'Mr. Thehogdog, would you happen to have a pair of sweats or gym pants in your truck'. YEP. So the the kid spent the rest of the day in a pair of nylon pants I had behind my seat."
"He is lucky because if he didn't fit he would have spent the rest of the day in a white disposable 'coverall' I had in case I had car trouble in nice clothes. Icing on the cake: It was a student I really liked who was super helpful to other kids and teachers, so it was nice to do something nice for him. I also carried a 'Swiss Army' brand soft side brief case (yard sale find) STUFFED and it had a few of each size of battery."
"One day Phil Niekro and 2 Braves players were there for an assembly and Phil's mic battery was dying so I SPRINTED upstairs to my classroom, grabbed a 9 volt from my bag, then basically rolled across the panel and switched out his battery and got back to the PA avoiding getting on TV News cameras."
Through the Hourglass...
"Not me, but my mother."
"Apparently at a party where my parents and their friends were playing board games, there was a realization that an hourglass was missing from one of the games they planned on playing. My mother proceeded to reach into her purse and pull out an hourglass she just so happened to bring, on the off chance they didn't have one."
"HOWEVER, later in the night when some drinks had been had, someone accidentally slammed a drink down, breaking my mother's hourglass. Without missing a beat, she reached into her purse and pulled out ANOTHER hourglass. She knew the first one, being glass, might get broken so she had a backup ready."
Former Flat Earthers Explain What Finally Made Them Come Around | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Creepers
"I didn't actually plan for this, it just worked out. But one day for some reason I put a suction cup in my pocket. I can't exactly remember why - it was from a shower hook that I think broke (?) and I put it in my pocket hoping to find a replacement or something."
"Later that day I was standing around with a few friends and one friend was lamenting that his bumper was dented. He showed us and said, "I bet I could pop it right out if I had like a suction cup or something." I wordlessly pulled the suction cup out of my pocket and handed it to him. Everyone definitely thought I was creepy as hell."
25 Plus
tom jerry GIFGiphy"When my son was still a baby, we had to take an 11 hour flight. As an overthinker, I brought at least 25 diapers for him to go through. He didn't need that many, but the mom sitting close to us was very grateful when she ran out of diapers not even halfway through the flight and I gave her a few."
See, these people get it. It's better to be safe than sorry. If I had a kid I'd be packing a hundred diapers. And to be a sewing aficionado and carrying around supplies, should be mandatory skill for everyone.
The Cut
scissors GIFGiphy"I carry scissors in my glove compartment. They came in handy when a kid tightened a skinny zip tie around my 9 year olds finger at a park. Completely cut off the circulation. Also the other kids mom was a nurse so that was helpful too. Carry scissors and a nurse at all times."
Clogged!
"One time, I waaaay over thought a concern I had around dryer vent fire. When the time came that we had a clog, didn't know, and there was a wee burst of flames I was freaking READY."
"Edit to add: I cleaned the lint trap religiously. I just had a gut feeling. I bough One of those things from Amazon to clean it and nothing came out so DON'T LET THAT FOOL YOU."
"If your drying times are up and there's sometimes a smell, call someone or check every POSSIBLE location. We found basically Brillo pads of burnt hair inside the heating element. Stay safe pals!"
"Last edit: thanks for the award - my first of this kind!!! You rock fuzzybum."
just in case...
"Was at one of those trampoline parks with my kid when I look over and see several of the workers attending to an elderly lady sitting on the floor. Turns out she'd taken a shot to the forehead somehow and was bleeding profusely. They were trying to help with paper towels. Well I'd taken a free local Stop the Bleed class "just in case" and since have kept supplies in my truck."
"Asked if they needed some gauze and a bandage, went and got it, and brought it back. I told the guy, "Now if one piece of gauze fills up -" He interrupted, "Take it off and put on a new one." I said, "No! You put another one overtop that one, but leave the bottom one there." He said, "Well, you know more than I do. Come over and help." We were able to get her patched up."
- nchiker
Slim Jim
"I bought and learned to use a slim Jim ( open locked cars) I carry one in my car and have been able to help no less than 10 people who have locked their keys in their car. My brother was visiting me from out of town and he need something from Target, he called me and said an elderly man had locked his keys in his car and I was able to drive over and help. Also have jumper cables that have helped start a few stranded drivers."
I See Things
All That Magic GIF by NickelodeonGiphy"Went through a stage as a teenager where I thought I was psychic."
"I know, I know, stupid. A friend asked me jokingly to make a prediction. I told him to get a flashlight, because tomorrow would be dark. I grabbed one myself when I got home and put it in my purse. No idea why, just did it. The next day the Eastern seaboard blackouts happened. He still asks for predictions to this day."
Got It!
"I worked weddings for a while, during an age (26-28) where lots of my friends were getting married. I've helped to bustle pretty much every bride whose wedding I attended, including brides who I didn't know well (who were either friends of my husband, or I was close friends with the groom)."
"At work, I had one of those craft supply organizers full to the brim of emergency supplies: pins (safety, bobby, AND straight pins), hair ties, earring backs, a sewing kit, pain relievers, tums, granola bars (sometimes you just need to get the bride to eat SOMETHING), chalk (works great for covering up minor stains on white dresses), hairspray, makeup remover wipes, superglue, bandaids, blister bandages, you name it. People were always pleasantly surprised when they needed something random and I was just like "yep I've got that, here you go!"
Tiny Ideas
"I remember one day in school a teacher was complaining someone had tied her blinds so tightly she couldn't get them to open or close. Me being the weird kid, I ask her if she wanted a screwdriver to get it undone. She looked at me like I was crazy and a little scared as I reached into my wallet and pulled out this tiny screwdriver from those tiny finger bmx/skateboards and handed it over."
"Everyone thought I was crazy and my teacher laughed in relief when she saw it. Everyone thought i was weird until I told them I used it to tighten the screws on my glasses. They were constantly unscrewing themselves and I was sick of having to go to the opticians every time it happened. Obviously the solution was to carry a tiny screwdriver with me!"
- Zanki
Parent MD
"I found a nickel-sized lump on my fifteen month old daughter's temple, freaked out, obsessed over it, researched it exhaustively, and concluded it was a dermoid cyst that had worn through the skull. I was told by a pediatrician that it was a bone bruise that would fix itself over the course of three to six months, no imaging was needed, and I shouldn't make an appointment at the children's hospital because it would resolve on its own."
"I got an X-ray done anyway and the radiologist confirmed every one of my suspicions, but the pediatrician still said to wait and see because that's what you do with dermoid cysts and it was definitely not through the skull despite what the radiologist said. Made an appointment at the hospital anyway, and the surgeon swore up and down that although it was a dermoid cyst as I'd suspected, it would not be through the skull since in all his years of practice it never had been."
"Well guess what? It WAS through the skull, and it was pressing on the membrane between the skull and the brain, a hair's breadth from breaking the membrane or pressing on the brain. A couple more weeks of waiting and my daughter could have had seizures, a brain infection, lasting damage. I overthought it and now she's a happy, healthy three year old."
Firesaver...
scary movie burn GIF by UsGiphy"I carry a fire extinguisher in my auto. I witnessed a car accident where the engine caught fire. I quickly put it out before it burned the inside of the car. Everyone survived."
- mwthread
The Classmen
"In college on occasion upper classmen would randomly steal the under classmen towels from the shower stalls and then lock their room doors so they had to go to the RA bar messed. I had the idea to stash a towel in the drop ceiling tiles for just that event. Maybe a week later I became the victim of a towel snatching. However, the upper classmen were very unhappy to see me strut out with a nice clean towel from my ceiling stash."
- duck1914
Holding the Deck
"I always keep an unopened deck of cards in my backpack. You never can tell when some Hold 'Em may be needed to pass the time. But when I was at a business conference the bigwig who was presenting to us was having to wing it with a few things because his luggage had been lost, and he didn't have all of his materials. He had the PowerPoint deck, but he didn't have his props."
"He started going into explaining how he'd be able to demonstrate this statistical principle he was describing, only he didn't have the unopened deck of cards he needed. Voila! I was able to produce a shrink-wrapped deck of cards. My boss was also in the same presentation, and he was also impressed that I just happened to have a deck of cards on me, so that's nice, too."
- ronearc
My Left Hand
"Injuring my dominant hand... as a kid I had an irrational fear of having it chopped off. I spent all of grade 6 teaching myself to write and do things with my left hand. I made a conscious effort to remain as ambidextrous as possible. As an adult I broke a few fingers on my dominant hand... but it wasn't a big issue because I could do most things equally with my left hand. Anti climactic, but it was useful lol."
I am Here
ichabod crane map GIF by HULUGiphy"Getting lost in a foreign country. Relying on phone GPS to navigate, data stops working... had over prepared and memorized the map of the downtown area ahead of time."
The Back-up
"I am basically blind without my glasses, and I've always taken a backup pair of glasses when I travel. It went untouched for years, taking up valuable space in my luggage. Lo and behold, one trip to Montreal a few years ago I just woke up one morning to find my glasses broken - no idea how it happened. And I finally got a chance to break out my backup pair 😎."
- caruul
Got it All...
"I used to live out of my backpack, and I always thought I'd need to leave town, so I kept just about everything in there you could ever need. Often times I'd end up having to stay somewhere without much notice, and I'd have: a change of clothes, face wash, tooth brush, toothpaste, scissors, floss, phone charger, money, snacks, etc. Enough to cover me for at least two days without actually needing to go home."
I hope everyone is paying attention. Be more like the overthinkers. We're the ones you want on the island. You want to stay useful or be fed to sharks. Eventually, our day always comes.
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It's not easy being alone in brilliance. To have an innate intuition about life is a gift and a curse. Nobody ever believes you.
And then when you're proven right, people get all moody about you shoving an "I told you so" in their face. But like... I did tell you so.
Madonna, Madonna is brilliant about always being ahead of the curve. Culturally she always knew where we were headed and what was and was not going to work.
It's a gift that is only meant for some.
So Redditoru/Fireseeker23reached out and wanted to discuss the things that those of us "in the know," always knew first by asking:
"What is your "Did it before it was cool" thing?"
I will admit that my wiring has been a bit off as of late. There are somethings I could've sworn would only be a fad. Like who really thought being an internet star would be a thing? Or that we'd be texting instead of calling? Or that Donald Trump would be... well, Donald Trump? What else did I miss?
Sweaty Poetry
Looking Kendrick Lamar GIF by SZAGiphy"Saw Kendrick Lamar in a college gym for $5 in 2011 lol."
"Edit: just found the flyer, it was $15. I've swindled you all."
Alien Life
"I read "The Martian" back when it was just a text file on some backwater website."
- 7th_Cuil
"I don't remember all the details, but the Martian was originally released for free by the author for his readers. Some of them wanted him to make a proper ebook so they could read it on kindle, but he'd lose money if he released it for free, so he charged a dollar for it."
"Enough of his fans bought it that it showed up in the best sellers list on Amazon, which caused more people to buy the $1 book. That got the word out, and now he's a household name. I may have gotten some parts of this wrong, but that's how the story was told to me."
- Lorvan
Game Guy
"I was a big freaking nerd and gamer in the late 80s and 90s."
"What's funny is in 2000 I went to an EverQuest guild meet up in Toronto and customs was incredulous, "you're coming to another country to meet people you met in a video game online?" Asked like 10 times in different ways."
"Then in 2008ish I went to Toronto again for a (then-WoW) meet up. "Why are you coming to Canada?" "World of Warcraft guild meetup." "How long are you staying?" "A week." "Enjoy your visit."
I was Spun!
"I had a fidget spinner on my desk for about six months before they blew up. At that time they weren't being mass produced at all. You pretty much got them 3D printed or laser cut from acrylic. I thought they were neat and sent them to my dad and brothers for Christmas. I still have my first one on my desk. It's laser cut neon yellow acrylic."
Geo Ways
ichabod crane map GIF by HULUGiphy"Geocaching. My friends and I were doing it with a Palm III with the GPS attachment back in 2000. I have no idea, I haven't done it in a long time at this point. I would not be surprised that it was ruined by popularity like everything else tends to be."
Ok, I totally called a few of those things. I didn't see Kendrick in a bathroom, but I called his success immediately. And I knew people would be obsessed with those spinners, and I knew they'd die. I feel better. I'm a little clearer.
Login
Celebrate Happy Birthday GIF by Lazada SingaporeGiphy"I needed an invite code to make my gmail account."
- xesalcd
"My college had a bunch of forums and a vote to decide if we were going to register with Facebook so students could get accounts. This was like, 2005 or early 2006."
Risk Your Life
"Bought Bitcoin in late 2010. Was on a Malayasian private server for an old game I used to love, called Risk Your Life (RYL). This server has a real money mall and of course I am dumb enough to want to pay to win. So I go on their site and they don't take normal credit card or PayPal but they offer some weird shi! called Bitcoin."
"So I go through the steps to buy it, spent around $100 usd for around 1000 Bitcoin.Spent 600 of the Bitcoin on some rings/ a sword/ an amulet and an armor. And 400 sat on my wallet until I sold most of it in 2017 for an absolutely massive profit. Still holding a few and changed my entire life."
Ponging
"When I was a young kid, my dad brought home a Fairchild gaming system, and I got addicted to playing video games like Pong and Breakout on my home television. This would have been 1976."
"During that time I was in college. At a party one night someone turned on Pong on the TV. The room got quiet as we all watched two people play the game, fascinated by it."
- maruffin
BLEACH
"I ordered Nirvana's 'Bleach' on cassette before Nevermind came out. (Saw in a magazine that they were supporting Sonic Youth, and Daydream Nation was my favourite album at the time, so that was enough of an endorsement for me.)"
"I was the coolest 14 year old in New Zealand for, like, two months. Then Smells Like Teen Spirit came out, and I spent the rest of my teenage years declaring that i liked them before they were cool. Nobody cared. And I still miss Kurt."
"edit: I was also the first person in my home town to know about Wu Tang Clan, I had to order the cassette from the US... probably had to dub 20 copies from it for all the other kids at school. Man, I wish I was still that hip :|."
With Fries Please!
Happy Popeyes Chicken GIF by Robert E BlackmonGiphy"I don't mean to brag -- but I bought the Popeye's chicken sandwich like a week or so before it exploded in popularity and people started killing themselves for it."
- Proxice
I still prefer KFC to Popeye's, but to each their own. And Nirvana I'll never understand. But I could smell the Teen Spirit. I'm still on the fence with all this cryptocurrency, but i'm doing research. Thoughts?
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Be ahead of the curve.
That is a life motto.
Be like Madonna.... she has always been ahead of the curve.
So often many of us are onto what will be the next thing long before the people.
And the people will of course judge us.
But when we know, we know the cool, trust, you know it.
Look at all the vintage revivals.
The new generations will always judge.
Just be cool.
Redditor u/Toxic-Waffles wanted to know how they are psychic in the cool arena.
People of Reddit, what did you get to 'before it was cool?'"
The Big D!
Giphy"I got to have a bag of 50 empty Doritos locos tacos shells a month before they released because I knew someone who was up in the chain."
J4c3l33t
"Alright honestly THIS is some legit stuff. My brother and I were just wondering when they would start selling them in grocery stores."
persephone_cap
The Web.
"The internet. '93"
raarts
"Email 1978"
"Emailing FORTRAN homework to our professor."
"My father worked for a defense contractor. I remember him bringing home an "ASCII art" picture of Snoopy in the early 70s."
TVLL
Infinity....
"I got an infinity tattoo. This was before smart phones and during the early days of Google. I took a piece of paper and made a moebius strip to help explain what infinity was to the tattoo artist."
"Went to to library and tried to find an image of it online, paid a quarter to print it, and the artist ended up doing a really good job with very little knowledge of the symbol. I still love it, but am bummed at how cliche it has become."
lil_suprises
Lil Dicky.
"I discovered Lil Dicky early on when he released his first video... early enough I even got a DM reply from him after I reached out to tell him how much I enjoyed his work."
thevhspodcast420
"This happened with me but with Hopsin. I was playing MW2 and some random guy was playing some of his old stuff. We were pubstomping together and he's like yo you gotta listen to him he's gonna get huge."
Icy9kills
"(Was on a flight while reading GoT and happened to be sitting in the first coach seat on the aisle. Stephen King was on the flight, flying coach no less, and when he walked past me he checked out what I was reading. I was super psyched it was a good book!)"
Theseus44
Avril Forever.
"When I was 19 and going clubbing regularly, I started wearing a tie with a t-shirt. Everyone thought it was cool for some reason (this was in that post-grunge era of 2001), I just was doing it because I thought it was funny."
"Then 6 months later Avril Lavigne became a thing and people just thought I was copying her."
HappyTimeHollis
G1...
"I had a google G1 on launch day. Google basically dropped support for it within a year and I learnt to never be an early adopter again."
Itxi
"I even switched cell phone providers to get a G1. Man, those were the days."
Cookie-muensters
PSY.
Giphy"My cousin showed me Gangnam Style like two weeks before it exploded. I dismissed it as being "another stupid song with an even stupider music video."
ATotallyRandomGuy
"I actually got an email from YouTube congratulating me on being one of the first people to see Gangnam Style. A friend sent it to me, only watched it the once."
albertdunderhead
LEGOS.
"Being a fan of LEGO on social media long before the 2014 movie. I'm in my mid-30s and have been collecting since I was a small child, and I have tattoos on mini-figures on my right forearm that I got almost a decade ago. I've even had my stuff published in actual magazines like Nintendo Power and Official Nintendo Magazine UK a long, long time ago."
"Edit: since people asked, this is my YouTube channel for demos and animations, and here's my Flickr for high-res photos."
vonbrunk
2side-1brain.....
"2side-1brain, this Okinawan band I became friends with when I was stationed there during my time in the Air Force. Good times and me and my friends got to know them and played with them at the local rock bars on the island and had a great time singing Nirvana and Deftones covers on those small stage, and then after a while, they went on tour in the US and made three more studio albums after that."
64hitcombo
Webkinz.
Giphy"Webkinz. My mom randomly picked me up one for Christmas before anyone knew what they were."
"Two months later and everyone in my class had like 50."
orangecrushh99
Ebay Away.
"Ebay member since Aug 1998."
WilyWalloo
"I miss those days -- back when you knew who you were bidding against. I remember times I decided not to snipe someone because I'd already beat her/him out a couple times."
"It was, somewhat, more of a community feeling in some categories."
displaced_virginian
Champions.
"Wearing champion clothes. I used to get roasted for that crap in middle school cause they had it in Walmart and it was for broke ppl. Now it's like a designer brand and high quality? Get out of here 😂"
Thegib3
Eat avocado on toast.....
"Eat avocado on toast without some idiot commenting on it. My dad ate that for breakfast all the time as an adult so I grew up watching him do it and eventually I liked it to and so now i do. I appreciate I can get it on a menu but really people? It's just avocado on toast calm down."
justhewayouare
Hey hey Coachella....
Giphy"I was wearing crop top belly shirts as a 5 year-old boy before any of these Coachella fools started wearing them. And yes, looking back I have no idea how my parents didn't suspect that I was gay."
throwawayd4326
Back in the '80s.....
"If you bicycle-commute in San Francisco from the Richmond District to downtown, you can go quite a ways east through the park and down the panhandle. Then you face a maze of streets between you and Market Street, to the south. There's a route through those streets called the Wiggle, or the 'Duboce Wiggle,"'that takes you through without going up or down any steep slopes. And then you are a block from Market and, in my day, anyway, could make a speed run downtown -- you had no choice, or the trucks would eat you."
"Back in the '80s, a few of us worked it out by trial and error. I maybe saw one other bike on the route during commute hours, usually. Now The Wiggle has its own Wikipedia entry, direction lines painted on the pavement to guide you through, and I'm told is fairly heavily used."
Tall_Mickey
Tuck It.
"About 25 years ago in PE I realized the plain white t-shirt I was wearing (part of the uniform) had a pretty big ketchup stain on the left side over my hip. So I tucked that part into my shorts so nobody saw (since tucking the whole thing in would look lame, right?). 5 minutes later I looked around and saw all the other boys in my class had tucked in their t-shirts in one side."
"For that one hour of PE I felt like a fashion god. I've never been cool and have worn odd shoes several times, but this one time, 25 years ago, I got to make something cool."
finzaz
Ooops....
"A friend of mine played My Chemical Romance's debut album for me when it first came out. I thought, well these guys sound pretty good, but I'm sure they're just another one of the indie bands he likes that will have some small underground success but no commercial breakthrough or fame."
helix274
Mo Bamba?
"You know that song Mo Bamba? Well I heard it on SoundCloud about a year before it blew up and I showed it to my friends. They all told me it was trash. A year later one of my friends says 'you guys here that new song mo bamba?' And they all told him it was great and it was the most popular song for a good 3 months."
"It's not that I loved the song but every time I hear it I'm reminded of how all my friends only liked it once it was cool and popular."
lafleurricky
La Croix....
Giphy"I started drinking La Croix 15 years ago, back when it only came in glass bottles of lemon or lime."
StanzoBrandFedoras
All the Rage...
"Flight of the Concords A friend of mine saw them play at a small venue while she was out of the country and played me their music one night. I tried for awhile to get other friends into them, but their humor was too dry for a lot of people. A few years later they were all the rage. I still listen to the original CD I burned of their music sometimes."
morbidnerd
Talking Bobbles
"Grew up listening to the Talking Heads, so I liked them before they became a meme with 'Once in a Lifetime.' In her college days, my mom also saw the band perform in places like tiny cafes before they made it big. She went to a lot of concerts and got to witness the entire new-wave explosion first hand which is pretty cool."
Taman_Should
Yuck Inducing
spicy bill hader GIFGiphy"Sriracha. We always had a bottle of that crap at my office a looooong time ago. I was actually pretty sick of it by the time everyone else started discovering it."
lupuscapabilis
Puff Away
"Vaping. I started vaping when they were first coming out. Before any vape stores. Before it was called vaping (just called electronic cigarettes back then). Before the good flavors, good vape production, etc. It didn't last long because it was expensive and not that great but I was still one of the pioneers!"
"Vaped on and off for years, alternating with real smoking and finally quit smoking completely like 3 years ago and just quit vaping completely 2 months ago. I feel so much freeer now!"
jetteh22
Straps
"Backpacks. To the best of my knowledge, I'm the innovator of the use of a backpack for school. I'm old. In the early 70s I was in college with a very book intensive major. I went to an army surplus store and bought a backpack. To my detriment, I was a one-strapper."
RonSwansonsOldMan
These people really knew how to set a trend.
Do you have similar experiences? Let us know in the comments below.