One Lesson for My Daughter By Allowing Her to Buy a Useless Hyped Product Influenced by Social Media

Paying US$250 for a hyped useless product (headphones), but a bargain for a life lesson.

The Story

Over the weekend, we cleaned up the garages and discovered a pair of expensive headphones my daughter bought in 2015, which were rarely used. On her birthday that year, when she was still in middle school, she mentioned wanting a pair of headphones. I gladly agreed since she rarely asked for specific gifts on her birthdays, and I asked her, “Which brand?” She hesitantly explained that the product wasn’t available yet and needed to be pre-ordered.

The headphones, designed by two university students in California, had somehow gained traction. My daughter, living in Australia, somehow really wanted a pair (influenced by social media and her peers).

Those two Uni students went to Indiegogo for funding.

It received over A$5 million in funding.

Anyway, my daughter put the order in (I made the payment), from the memory, for US$250, which was not cheap. It is not even wireless or noise-cancelling.

I knew this would be a hyped product and would end up no good. Two simple reasons:

• Headphones need to be light, putting speakers on a headphone?!

• Those two Uni students are highly likely wouldn’t be able to deal with the sudden fortune.

But I didn’t try to dissuade my daughter. Not only did I not want to disappoint her, but also because it would be a good life lesson, and $250 seemed like a reasonable price for that experience.

The following became as I predicted.

• The production, outsourced to a factory in China, faced repeated delays

• Meanwhile, the two designers had conflicts that eventually ended up in court.

Long story short, many months later (we even forgot about it), my daughter finally received the product. It was not good, considering its price.

• The headphones are heavy.

• The audio quality is not good.
  (the package was quite OK, though)

My daughter did not want to wear it, and understandably, she was a bit upset. I told her that the purchase was fine; we learned a lesson for a good price.

By the way, I did see a few people (in my city) wearing these headphones.

Update: My daughter sold the headphones (over the eBay) for A$35 last month.

The Teachable Lessons

Some might wonder how this relates to my usual topic: E2E Test Automation, Continuous Testing and Micro-ISV. Well, it kind of does.

Lesson 1. Hypes in E2E Test Automation are Very Common.