Things I Used to Think Were Cool

Sometime ago, I wrote a blog post detailing things that I used to think were stupid but now realize are more useful than they are stupid.

Somewhat related to that blog post is this post, where I look at a number of things that I used to think were cool but now realize were actually quite stupid.

Take for example my belief in the old days that everybody anywhere near me must have shared the same taste in music as me (Neil Young and Crazy Horse or anything from Led Zeppelin other than Stairway to Heaven).

In the old days I drove a soft-top jeep. A jeep that I saw fit to equip with a sound system with a 200 watt amplifier.

The six speakers I had mounted in the jeep and on the roll cage made sure that anybody within eight nautical miles of wherever I was driving or parked was able to clearly hear my musical choices.

Wow did I ever think I was cool. I realize now I was probably the biggest jerk on the road.

On a similar note, I used to have what I thought was the coolest motorcycle on the road but now realize was probably the most annoying thing on the road.

Don’t get me wrong, I still have a motorcycle and I still ride motorcycles regularly. However, in the old days I thought it was super cool to have a motorcycle with an exhaust system on it that made my bike sound more like an out of control jet-engine than a street bike.

I also thought it was extraordinarily cool to open it up anywhere I was riding, especially between midnight and 3 AM while riding through residential neighbourhoods.

Another one of those things that I thought was cool but now realize what an annoying jerk I probably was.

It is interesting to see how my perspective and understanding has changed through the years.