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A golden age is "the period when a specified art, skill, or activity is at its peak."
It's sometimes also referred to as a golden era.
Comic books, trading cards, Beanie Babies and Star Wars figures have all had golden ages—when their sales and popularity were at a peak—and have since fallen off considerably.
Reddit user JackHammerAwesome asked:
"What is currently in it's 'Golden age', but not enough people know about it?"
Knitting
"Knitting. First, we're in the golden age of yarns. There are hundreds of indie dyers putting amazing colors on a truly mind-boggling range of yarn bases—both fiber content and weight."
"Even 'cheap' yarn is better quality, and comes in a wider range of colors and bases, than ever before. There's an abundance of wool yarn soft enough to wear next to your skin—although you can get scratchy yarn if that's your jam."
"Then there are the patterns. Thousands of them, many of them free online. Think of what you want to make, and there's a pattern out there."
"Tools, too. How do you like your needles: wood, bamboo, steel, aluminum, plastic, casein, circular with 15 sizes of interchangeable tips, straight, long short? They're out there."
"If you're a knitting nerd, it's a great time to be alive."
~ cwthree
Cooking
"Cooking! I'm 30 now and it's so easy to find amazing recipes, good cooking supplies, and with so much information I can save money on food in so many ways."
"LiterallyYouTube is teaching me to make so many great things."
~ BootsRubberClumsy
"I can’t recommend highly enough The Foodlab and The Wok by J. Kenji López-Alt."
"Both books upped my cooking game immensely by describing in excruciating detail why each step is done the way it is in the order it is with the science/culinary background to make it make sense beyond just following the steps."
"First and only cookbooks I’ve ever read cover to cover. Cooking techniques from one recipe are applied to and built upon in other recipes."
"His writing style is also quite funny."
~ jb270
Paleontology
"Paleontology! So much tech bringing new stuff to light."
~ foolishfoolsgold
"So in South America they were finding 'caves' that shouldn't be there, because the conditions for cave formation did not exist.
"They tested some dung in one of the caves for DNA and found out it was from a giant ground sloth."
"Those weren't caves, they were burrows. Giant, elephant-sized ground sloths dug burrows."
~ Stewart_Games
"Dinosaurs! On average, a new species is named every other week."
~ mlstarner
Archaeology
"Archaeology. LiDAR's power to identify probable human-made structures under layers of jungle canopy is just incredible."
~ ModusPwnins
"Archeology paired with archeogenetics are also in a complete golden age and currently rewriting basically everything we know about history."
~ Diare
"Take a look at what they’re discovering with the footprints that are being unearthed in White Sands National Park in New Mexico. There’s tons of new information coming from this."
"There’s one example in which there are giant sloth tracks interacting with human tracks. It’s changing timelines in archeology significantly."
"Indigenous Americans have been in the Americas a lot longer than we thought."
~ Sun_Sprout
"Almost every other year they discover another forgotten civilization in the Americas, with large scale soil and/or land engineering and cities with multiple tens of thousands. In places we did not even knew there was anything."
"Apparently we have to rewrite a lot of our history books."
~ tudorapo
Astronomy
"Astronomy is currently experiencing a golden age. It has changed radically in the last 30ish years."
"Think on this, if you are 30 + years old, you were born into a world that wasn't sure if planetary systems were rare or common. We now know that nearly all stars are likely to have planets."
"We know of 5,000+ exoplanets."
" Mars was not considered a place we could find signs of life by most. The generation of spacecraft exploring Mars since the year 2000 changed that."
"Now some argue that discovering signs of past life on Mars is a matter of when, not if."
"We found multiple worlds in our solar system with liquid water oceans."
"This is just scratching the surface. New technologies like the James Webb Space Telescope promise to keep the momentum going for the foreseeable future."
~ Slimjerry
Crocheting
"With crochet specifically, we are having a golden age of amigurumi! I know there are plenty of patterns to knit amigurumi, but sooo many more for crochet!!"
"I've made way more amigurumi than wearables or other things in crochet."
~ QUEERVEE
"Not just amigurumi. When I started crocheting 20 years ago, if you wanted to crochet something to wear, it was going to be granny squares or really basic, blocky clothing."
"It's amazing what patterns you can find now! Sweaters that fit well, slipper socks that aren't uncomfortable, lacy shirts and dresses that are truly gorgeous!"
"The amount of decorative stitches that have made their way into clothing and the creative uses of them to mimic knit or weaving are amazing."
"There was a similar surge of wearable crochet in the 70s, but so many of the patters looked really dated that by the time I started up in the early 2000s, there was just nothing appealing."
~ justalittlelupy
Keyboards
"Keyboards, both synthesizers and mechanical."
"It's possible to get a synth that sounds identical to a $5000 Minimoog for $200 and a decent mechanical keyboard for less than that."
~ the_slanted_slope
Specialized Food
"Dietary options."
"No matter what issue you have, there's a product that will meet that restriction AND taste good."
~ deathbrusher
"I found out I have an allergy to dairy, gluten, and egg in January. The options for dining out are amazing, albeit limited."
"But almost every restaurant is very cognizant of options—of course with some exceptions. Once you find your spots the dining out world opens up for you again."
"I can’t imagine having to deal with this pre-2010 though."
~ PhishOhio
Board Games
"Board games have been having a great run for the past 10 years—tons of amazing games coming out every year."
~ jraff_dot_net
"The combination of the internet and the inability to copyright rules have opened a floodgate of innovation in board games."
~ SuperPants73
Televisions
"Home TVs."
"The sort of hardware you can get for even $300 is absolutely absurd compared to what the 1980s through 2000s knew."
~ NotAnotherEmpire
"In 2006, a 32” from Best Buy was $1,700."
"I can’t come to terms with the fact that only 18 years later I’m watching a TV twice as big, that cost 40% less, and carries a picture quality that’s so good it gives me chills sometimes."
~ frawgster
Playing And Recording Music
"Playing guitar and recording music."
"You can buy a quality guitar online for crazy cheap now and some pro recording software out there is free."
~ leatherwolf89
"Seriously! 'Starter' instruments these days are so far ahead of the starters of the 90's/00's—it's insane how much quality you can get these days for much, much less."
~ Fortune090
"I was telling my wife that equipment and software is so affordable and accessible now that 'garage' sound must be manufactured and has lost authenticity."
~ CldStoneStveIcecream
Obituaries
"Obituaries."
"Many ordinary people now have extraordinarily detailed obituaries."
"In decades past, most obituaries only gave basic information about death, survivors, and funeral plans and perhaps some biographical details, but obituaries of decades ago were not nearly as thorough as obituaries written and published today and over the past decade or so."
"A well-written obituary will allow the dead to live on in memory and in the minds of generations yet to be born."
~ rofnorb
Chess
"I think chess is at a golden age right now—it seems like everything is growing exponentially at the moment with it."
"More and more people playing online and in person. It started with the pandemic and the Queen's Gambit, but it's 2024 and it doesn't seem to be slowing down."
"January was the fastest month for chess YouTube growth ever and I imagine February topped that."
~ claireapple
"Also, today's chess computers are such an amazing learning opportunity for beginners."
"You can analyze all your games and find out where things went wrong, and why another move would’ve been better."
"960chess is also promising a lot more excitement at the pro level, and it’s growing continuously."
~ TheDivision5
Podcasts
"Podcasts—long form storytelling, interviews, investigative journalism on so many topics—new and old."
"Great form of education, entertainment and everything in between."
~ mixxastr
Scams
"Unfortunately, scams. Technology has made it easy and cheap to pull off."
"People are lonelier and mental health concerns sometimes make people more vulnerable to these scams."
"And finally the archaic law enforcement structure isn’t set up to go after them so there’s virtually no punishment for doing it."
"Watch out, fam."
~ Jellyfish2017
"Unfortunately, generative AI is only going to make scamming that much cheaper and more prolific."
"Scammers can use AI programs to quickly and easily create audio/visuals that are individualized to the victim, like a fake phone call from a loved one."
~ RantingSidekick
What would you add to this list?