←back to thread

Let AI do the hard parts of your holiday shopping

(blog.google)
17 points ChrisArchitect | 2 comments | 13 Nov 25 17:36 UTC | HN request time: 0.422s | source
Show context
constantcrying ◴[13 Nov 25 18:28 UTC] No.45918574[source]▶
What is the points of gifts? For children it is of course obvious why they enjoy gifts, they have no/few other means of obtaining these things.

But why do adult humans, who almost always have the ability to just buy the gifts, give and receive gifts?

I personally hate gifts, but I can imagine why people enjoy giving and receiving them. The reason is that it demonstrates that someone else cared, that they took their time and spent energy for you. Likewise giving a gift is an act of appreciation for the other person for the same reason.

But this also means that the idea of automating gift selection makes the whole thing redundant. What purpose is there in AI gift selection? It becomes just a stupid ritual, in which people spend money to fulfill some social obligation.

replies(2): >>45918715 #>>45921063 #
SoftTalker ◴[13 Nov 25 18:39 UTC] No.45918715[source]▶
Everyone I know eventually comes to this conclusion as an adult. All my friends pretty much have "no gift" agreements with their spouses/partners.
replies(1): >>45919053 #
1. andrepd ◴[13 Nov 25 19:02 UTC] No.45919053[source]▶
I give thoughtful gifts. It would never occur to me to order Amazon slop just to mark some meaningless occasion as mandated by social/adbiz pressure.

The missus reads a lot so whatever book she mentioned that she'd like to read is usually my go to lol.

replies(1): >>45920032 #
2. SoftTalker ◴[13 Nov 25 20:23 UTC] No.45920032[source]▶
Yeah that's sensible. Obligatory gifting for birthdays/holidays is what I was really talking about.

An occasional thoughtful "surprise" gift is different and I wasn't intending to exclude that.