Poll: Say you bought a new car, showed it to a friend and the next day....

dowie · 17 Dec 2020 at 13:46

... they buy the exact same car - how would you feel?

Happy: (feel good about it, happy for the friend, doesn't bother you etc..)

Neutral: (ambivalent, mixed emotions, flattered but annoyed, depends on the friend etc..)

Unhappy: (irritated, betrayed, spoils your car/less unique etc..)

dowie · 17 Dec 2020 at 14:25

Ayahuasca said:
Exact same colour and spec?

That isn't specified, just that they've bought the same car.

dowie · 17 Dec 2020 at 15:22

dl8860 said:
@dowie so is this a random hypothetical or are we the jury on some really serious real life drama going down?

LOL, nah it's just a hypothetical. Have seen the results of the question posed to two distinct groups posted earlier today and was curious what OCUK might think. One set of responses was quite surprising to me and I didn't understand the mindset, I was clearly in the other camp but not from that demographic, will drop in a link later today.

dowie · 17 Dec 2020 at 17:09

ttaskmaster said:
I was gonna say as much, as I didn't think you had any friends!!

Oi!

Skidder said:
What kind of friend? If like BFF / gay sex partner then I might be miffed, if not, I wouldn't care at all.

It's not specified, though if that's a mixed response/dependent on the friend then choose neutral I guess:

dowie said:
Neutral: (ambivalent, mixed emotions, flattered but annoyed, depends on the friend etc..)

dowie · 17 Dec 2020 at 18:49

arknor said:
Maybe I'm round your house for a coffee I see you have a really nice looking kettle that catches my eye.
oh but wait, nice guuci belt where did you get it from?

whys a car different? unless they are purposely trying to 1up each other.
which is just daft

It isn't necessarily, unless it is for you? Presumably it isn't. Perhaps some people do try to 1up each other etc..

dowie · 17 Dec 2020 at 19:09

So it looks like OCUK posters are more in line with the responses by firefighters than MBA grads!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1339564558172758016

Saw this posted this morning and thought it was very odd, nearly half of the MBA grads feeling upset or betrayed if a friend bought the same car! Now the study seemingly let people answer the question in their own words and sought to categorise their responses but meh... looks like OCUK is mostly not bothered and/or happy.

The thing is they've used MBAs as some sort of proxy for middle-class people but I'm not sure this is a good reflection, I'd assume OCUK is a mix of both middle class and working class but the results in here are from this very ad-hoc thread are much closer to the firefighters.

I'm wondering if this is perhaps an American thing or more likely an American and an MBA thing... what sort of person gets overly sensitive about their latest status symbol? Perhaps the sort of people who spends 100k+ on an MBA is more likely than most to do so!

dowie · 17 Dec 2020 at 19:43

adolf hamster said:
how "the same" are we talking here?

are we talking you bought a ford focus and they bought a ford focus with a different engine/colour/trim spec etc? or ate we talking exactly the same?

funny i'm kind of going through this at the minute, bought a black volvo at the start of the year and a couple of my mates have since bought black volvos (different models granted), my reaction was to point out do we really want to look like we're some sort of swedish mafia?

It’s not really specified but I’m assuming same make and model, I probably shouldn’t have put “exact” in the OP.

dowie · 17 Dec 2020 at 20:41

Interesting we've got 7 votes for unhappy so far, I'm not sure there have been (m)any comments along those lines though, would be interested in the reasons?

dowie · 18 Dec 2020 at 09:30

sHo0sH said:
Weird question, there are so many of the same car out there, surely its great that your friend liked your taste so much they needed to get in on the level of cool clearly oozing from you.

Do you assume your car is clearly cool?

dowie · 19 Dec 2020 at 19:19

randomshenans said:
Most MBAs have no frigging concept of the real world out there and think they're important thanks to their MBA, whereas the rest of us have more important things to worry about. Firefighters have a grasp on perspective. MBAs clearly do not. With more and more people doing MBAs that says a lot about the future!

Yeah I can see how say a Harvard or Wharton MBA obtained in the 80s or 90s was super valuable these days they're a bit hit and miss I think.

If someone is already on track for a good career they can perhaps be useful. I used to work with some older guys who were continually bitching about a colleague in our US office and how they couldn't believe how he'd been promoted etc.. he'd not too long beforehand been a regular manager (and before that a developer just like them) but had since become an MD and then a CTO (he'd done an MBA in his spare time). After a merger he got another C level appointment and looking at linked in he's had another C level move and then a further move to become a CEO of a reasonably large (as in worth over a billion) company. I suspect, for him, his MBA was useful For others it's perhaps been a waste of money, I remember one IT/trade support guy in a Canadian bank used to have MBA, CFA in his e-mail signature and you'd just feel sorry for him!

I suspect that a lot of MBA types are very aspirational and perhaps have big egos etc.. and so for them the car is sort of a status symbol, for someone to just get the same type on a whim shortly after is perhaps seen as diminishing it for them or something?