Moderator Stuffed02 from r/DidntKnowIWantedThat told Bored Panda all about how their community first got started on Reddit. "DidntKnowIWantedThat got started when someone made a post on a big subreddit and people started commenting quite literally our future name," they said.

They told us that their subreddit is very open, as long as people follow some basic rules. "We allow all kinds of unusual products that you only realize the need for once you see it. Our only main rule issue is people trying to advertise their products. My message for them is: don’t. We always catch it. Other than that, there aren’t any major rule paradigms we have to deal with."

Mod Stuffed02 also opened up about what the year's been like for the subreddit. Surprisingly, it hasn't been as bad as you might think. "2020 has actually been a fun year for a lot of us on our team. Having to spend more time online means we get to see more products and be more dedicated to our users."

Meanwhile, another moderator, Metastasis_d pitched in and told us that the subreddit was started by "a spammer who wanted to use the subreddit to advertise products," however, the community outlasted them.

For the past year and a half, the r/DidntKnowIWantedThat subreddit has been a testament to out-of-the-box thinking and just how creative humankind can get when it really wants to. We’ve had our minds blown since the first time we visited the subreddit and we keep getting surprised each time.

The community is also very inspiring for anyone who needs new ideas for their projects or business ventures. There’s nothing like seeing something weird but wonderful to shake things up when you’re deep inside a creative hole and need a leg-up to climb out.

The subreddit also raises an interesting question: why do we want a particular product (and does it have to have a gimmick to make us want it)? According to the National Association of Sales Professionals, it’s all tied to our emotions.

The NASP explains that people buy products based on their emotional needs or wants, and then justify their purchase logically later on. In other words, we make our decisions based on how we feel and later sprinkle some logical reasoning on top to make it look rational.

So selling products becomes less about appealing to ‘perfect,’ rationally thinking, economic consumers and more about seeing what their hearts truly want. Which is far tougher and way easier to do all at once, ironically.

On the one hand, getting to grips with emotional reasons for why people buy something is far more slippery and less concrete. On the other hand, we’re all people and we have full access to our own emotions and how we react to products.

As cheesy as it sounds, in order to sell your product, you first have to get to know yourself, the problems you need fixed, and how this relates to your inner emotional world. That’s how you create something that others didn’t know they wanted until they saw it and everything just clicked into place.