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

"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."

- _toodamnparanoid_

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."

- zCYNICALifornia

Geo Ways

"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."

- Nonsenseinabag

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

"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."

- standbyyourmantis

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."

- ImagineerRecruiter

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."

- Egheaumaen

"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 :|."

- paulfknwalsh

With Fries Please!

"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?