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Products, just like people, have life cycles. Typically, their existence is broken into four stages—introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. And, just like ours, the time of each one can vary greatly.

So when a post on r/AskReddit invited people to name the products that they believe have died just because we weren't smart enough to understand them, it received plenty of replies.

From movies to gaming consoles and even foods, here are some of the most interesting submissions and the stories behind their demise.

This post may include affiliate links.

#1

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them The US National Park Service struggled for years to find a locking trash can that would be able to keep bears out. People couldn't figure them out so they wouldn't lock it back up, or litter, rendering them useless. One park ranger was quoted as saying there was considerable overlap between the dumbest people and the smartest bears.

llcucf80 , Florida Fish and Wildlife Report

Final score:
376points
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#2

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them The 1/3lb burger because people thought it was smaller than the 1/4lb one.

evilmonkey2 , cyclonebill Report

Final score:
231points
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#3

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them Initially? The idea of washing your hands was resisted to the point that the man pushing the idea of hand washing was driven to a mental breakdown from the ridicule of his peers.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis#:~:text=Despite%20various%20publica,tions%20of%20results,rejected%20by%20the%20medical%20community](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis#:~:text=Despite%20various%20publications%20of%20results,rejected%20by%20the%20medical%20community).

Today's equivalent would be a toss up between masks and vaccines. Because some >!(overly vocal, inbred, mouth breathing Jesus freak)!< people are just too f*****g stupid to listen to science.

AtheistScoutLeader , Jason Jarrach Report

Final score:
219points
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Jenn C
Jenn C
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Doctors resisted washing their hands between patients because "A gentleman's hands are always clean"

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#4

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them The metric system in the United States

anon , Aslak Raanes Report

Final score:
190points
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JoNo
JoNo
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I scrolled down just to see if the Metric System was on this list, as it was my first thought when I read the heading. Metric is really easy, everything is in 10s, 100s, 1000s, so simple to learn and use.

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#5

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them About 15 years ago Arm & Hammer came out with a series of environmentally safe cleaning products for bath, kitchen, and glass. They worked well, smelled good, and I really liked them.
The drawback for dummies was the reusability of the spray bottle. Refills came in a cartridge the size of a five hour energy shot. You filled the bottle up to the fill line with water then screwed the cartridge into the bottle which had special inner threads to open the cartridge. The spray bottle was sold empty with a cartridge attached. The checker at the store paused when ringing me up to ask if I really wanted to pay six bucks for an empty bottle. When I bought the glass cleaner I got the same question. Nobody bought it because they didn't realize how it was packaged.

cascadiancuddles , Karolina Grabowska Report

Final score:
183points
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#6

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them Quarantine procedures!

Jesus Christ we could have released these lockdowns months ago if people just listened to the experts!

awomanwritingawoman , Önder Örtel Report

Final score:
178points
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censorshipsucks
censorshipsucks
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

PS South Africa, which is according to Herr Orange Hitler, a shithole, has a per-capita death rate lower than USA and we were out of covid like a year ago. Really. WHY? because we masked up and took our vaxes and ate our vegetables. Instead of waving flags and yelling about freedumb.

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#7

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them Golden Rice.
In many countries in southeast Asia White rice is the main food. But white rice lacks Provitamin A, which is essential for lots of stuff in the eyes and immune system.
So some scientists developed a new species of rice which has been genetically engineered to produce golden rice.
Studies have shown that the rice could be a serious help in those countries and it grows just as good as normal rice.
But because it is evil generic engineering lots of organizations give their best to slow the approval process down with (in most cases) b******t and some idiots keep destroying test fields.

Raghduhll , International Rice Research Institute Report

Final score:
174points
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Lakota Wolf
Lakota Wolf
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

EVERY SINGLE FOOD PLANT we currently eat are "GMOs", technically. XD Corn is GMO maize. I won't even go into the number of GMO cultivars of good old Brassica oleracea. "Genetically modified organism" does not translate into "evil scientists tinkered with its genes in a lab!!!" Cross-breeding and selective breeding are also "genetic modifications".

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#8

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them Those little shopping carts at grocery stores for kids. A bunch of dumb a*s parents refused to parent their kids and they would just let them jam the carts into displays, peoples legs, other carts etc, so almost all grocery stores in our area got rid of them. They were made so kids could put their own choices into the cart and be mindful of what they choose, not babysitter bumper cars.

ironbox13 , Todd Van Hoosear Report

Final score:
164points
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pelemele
pelemele
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"They were designed so that children can put their own choices in the shopping cart and be aware of what they choose" Translation: "They were designed to push consumption a little more by using children as an excuse"

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#9

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them Removable batteries on smartphones.

People couldn't handle the "cHeAp PlAsTiC" on a phone they were putting a case on anyway. As a result, we can't change the batteries in smartphones anymore.

SecretPotatoChip , Kārlis Dambrāns Report

Final score:
148points
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Iampenny
Iampenny
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I really wish smartphone companies would bring back removable batteries

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#10

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them There was a lottery ticket scratch off that had a temperature listed on it. You would scratch off to reveal your own temperature, and if it was colder than the listed one, you win. Pretty simple, right?

It failed because people don’t understand negative numbers. People called in claiming that they “won” because -6 is “colder” than -8.

It is not. The ticket was ultimately discontinued.

Squishiimuffin , Trading Card Hunter Report

Final score:
143points
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#11

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them Police Squad!, made by the guys who did Airplane! and widely considered pound for pound one of the funniest TV shows that's ever aired. But it failed because it required audiences to actually pay close attention to the quickfire gags and fast dialogue. Led to ABC's president memorably saying it was cancelled because "the viewer had to watch it in order to appreciate it."

Later it was adapted into the Naked Gun movies, which were smash successes, probably because people in theaters are locked down into the movie.

Johnnyc**kseed , Police Squad!: The Complete Series [DVD] Report

Final score:
129points
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Bernd Herbert
Bernd Herbert
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Check out the Video "Police Squad - Name Confusion" on Youtube. That is hilarious!

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#12

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them For a while, seat belts, because auto executives thought it implied the car was unsafe.

JustAnoutherGeek , Kelly Report

Final score:
129points
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#13

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them masks, vaccines, and anything else scientists spend literal years researching

carter_____ , FRANK MERIÑO Report

Final score:
128points
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#14

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them Nuclear power

RahvinReborn , Pixabay Report

Final score:
120points
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Matias Marczak
Matias Marczak
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

People will never understand how safe nuclear waste is as long as the media exists, so it's better to just shove the idea down the drain and invest in fusion energy.

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#15

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them My dad once told me about how they tried to sell crumpets in a new country and they did really poorly because no one realised that they were supposed to be toasted. I think once they updated the packaging to tell everyone they were supposed to be toasted they did a lot better.

acciofriday , Iain Farrell Report

Final score:
113points
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Tamra
Tamra
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Crumpets are delicious! All those tiny little pockets to hold that melted buttery goodness...aaannnd now I want a crumpet.

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#16

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them COVID symptom checking websites. People don’t want to comply with these as a preventive measure to determine potential outbreaks before they occur because “they’re tracking my personal information.”

The COVID symptom checking programs track only your responses and if it’s through your employer or school, only your school or employee ID number. They don’t understand that their phones track much more information than the COVID symptom checkers.

NeonBird , Cory Checketts Report

Final score:
111points
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#17

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them I'd have to say freedom. Too many people strip it down to "doing whatever the hell you want", and do all kinds of stupid and destructive things and give a bad name to the concept. Then people who know what freedom really is, but don't want people to be free, use it as a pretext for taking away our freedoms.

EvilSnack , Becca Tapert Report

Final score:
110points
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N Miller
N Miller
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

People who think they believe in freedom always think it means freedom from facing the consequences

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#18

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them In Sweden we had twopacks of sugarcubes at cafés. They were really simple to open, just hold it with the weld up, pinch each half and break it in half. The weld would open in an elegant way and expose the sweetness inside, ready to be taken out and consumed. Just like opening a book.

Very few understood this.

People would rip, tear, scratch, bite and do all sorts of f**kery to open the innocent packs of sweet reward. And they complained, oh they complained.


Story goes the inventor were depressed for life because just a few brilliant people could understand the beauty of his brilliant little treasure chests of sugary heaven. F*****s.

HSPWS , Jill Shih Report

Final score:
105points
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#19

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them Off the wall one but: Soap that doesn't sud.

A chemical needs to be added to soap in order for it to sud, and it was added so people would know that they were scrubbing enough. Now, people all expect soap to sud, so if someone puts out soap that doesn't have that chemical, people say the soap is broken.

anarky98 , Oisin Prendiville Report

Final score:
102points
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Dirk Daring
Dirk Daring
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I make soap from lye, water, and a variety of plant oils. Coconut oil produces a very foamy bar of soap, without needing to 'add chemicals'. Though it is true that soap doesn't have to be sudsy to clean your skin effectively.

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#20

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them The Wii U. People didn't know it was a new console and thought it was just a regular Wii, an add on to the Wii or who knows what else. A different name would have solved this entire problem. People still don't know how to distinguish Wii U games from regular Wii games, even though Wii U games will not play on a Wii console.

Marketing Geniuses take note, if you have a new product give it a different name than a slight variant on its predecessor.

SaraAB87 , ze_bear Report

Final score:
93points
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wendillon avatar
Monday
Monday
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It didn't fail because people didn't understand it....it failed because it had no third party support. That lead to it just not having enough good, non Nintendo games.

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#21

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them They put out instant cake mix in the 50's. You only needed to add water, but no one would buy it. I think they couldn't believe you could make a cake with just powder and water. They discontinued it.

cen-texan replied: There was a story when I was in school that the marketing guys figured out that if you take out the powdered egg and had the end user add eggs it would sell.

They figured that as women were going into the workforce and weren't able to cook a full meal, the felt guilty about buying a complete mix. Having the end user add real eggs gave them the feeling that they were really baking and not just pouring powder out of a box.

CyborgWraith , theimpulsivebuy Report

Final score:
84points
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Jrog
Jrog
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Eh, not really. The early mixes with powdered egg and powdered milk gave very bad results, people noticed and this confirmed the skepticism about this new product, effectively killing it until it was fixed. The protein part of the eggs and the fats of the milk when quickly re-hydrated tended to clump together. The dry eggs went brown and soggy quickly. The drying process used in the 50s and 60s altered the sugar content of the egg and favored bacterial alterations that gave an off flavor and prevented stable whisking. A reliable, safe and cost effective process for egg drying was perfected only in the 80s, when pasteurized foam-spray drying and selective glucose removal techniques became available on the market.

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#22

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them In 1979, Clairol rolled out their touch-of-yogurt shampoo, which they hoped would help people with oily hair. Unfortunately for them, oily-haired consumers didn’t like the idea of washing their hair with yogurt. The few who did buy the shampoo thought it was edible, only to be disappointed after getting sick as a result.

Katybee18 , Matthew Tkocz Report

Final score:
77points
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censorshipsucks
censorshipsucks
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I can't remember which brand it was now, one of these french sounding ones, which released a "soft laser" cream. I was like, no ... laser isn't a substance...?!?

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#23

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them The Zune. Mayyybe a stretch but you could pay a monthly subscription ($10 if memory serves) for unlimited downloads. As long as you had the subscription, you could download anything you wanted to your device. On top of that you got 10 song credits a month you could use to buy songs to keep forever. As a music lover, I thought this was a better option than paying a buck a song from Apple for your iPod, plus I recall it being a cheaper device with more storage. All you can eat music for $10 plus I get 10 songs a month to keep forever? Not bad. People still think I’m crazy when I bring it up. Granted, the stuff you didn’t own would go away of you ever canceled the subscription, but still, it’s not that different a concept from streaming platforms like Spotify.

patriotcommando , Robert Nelson Report

Final score:
74points
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wendillon avatar
Monday
Monday
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There were feature differences too though. Later gen iPods had built in cameras and were basically budget smartphones, whereas the Zune needed extra accessories to take pictures or videos. The Zune's screen was smaller so watching movies/shows on it wasn't as good and it's battery didn't last as long as the iPod's either and transferring songs from your Zune to other devices was a tad trickier than with the iPod. I don't particularly like Apple products but they had the superior hardware in this case.

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#24

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them We had a guy come talk to us at my college about his experience in marketing. He mentioned that when he used to work for Campbell's (I think) they had trouble breaking into the Chinese market with their instant soup. They had just assumed that it would sell just as well there as anywhere else but apparently it was the same kind of issue as you mentioned where I guess culturally it was seen as "cheap" to just heat up some instant soup. So they rebranded and repackaged it as a dry mix that you had to actually add to boiling water and lo and behold it started selling

Underbash , Mike Mozart Report

Final score:
73points
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Colin
Colin
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Chevy Nova. Great example of culture/language barriers for marketing.

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#25

When Yosemite became more popular the Rangers began to notice a problem with locals feeding bears food. The issue is that feeding bears food is the equivalent of giving them crack. They will instantly become aggressive, and will begin ravaging campsites and cars.

PittDane Report

Final score:
71points
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Heather W
Heather W
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Lady: Can we feed the bears? Ranger: No, ma'am. That's illegal. Lady: Can we let our kids go play with them? Ranger: No, ma'am. That would be feeding the bears.

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#26

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them Blinkers

Turd_Ferguson009 , JOHNNY LAI Report

Final score:
63points
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Oerff On Tour
Oerff On Tour
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

BMW/Audi drivers still can't grasp the concept of blinkers, by default

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#27

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them Nearly 50% of HDTV’s in the early era were returned because people plugged in their RCA cables as the main video source.

They not only didn’t understand what HD was, they thought the picture looked worse, as it was distorted on a 16:9 screen.

usf_edd , FHKE Report

Final score:
60points
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censorshipsucks
censorshipsucks
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yep, I had to explain this to a LOT of old people. It's the same people who give you a portrait-orientation photo and want you to render it as a landscape version, and then complain that it is "fat" and "Stretched"

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#28

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them Most drugs, such as morphine and LSD. They started as perfectly legal drug, that could have positive effects if used correctly. But people started abusing them and they ended up outlawed in most countries.

Fisto-the-sex-robot , John Campbell Report

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Ace
Ace
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

No, they're not outlawed, just controlled for proper medical use. Not that LSD has much use, but opiates, benzos, etc. etc.

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#29

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them American liberalism. People thought that saying "the land of the free" would make it the land of the free, regardless of law changes.

Odin_Allfathir , Kate Ter Haar Report

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wendillon avatar
Monday
Monday
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ironically the land of the free is significantly less free than many other countries.

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#30

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them Those chip bags that would decompose in the ground. Too noisy, they said.

But I kind of feel all chip bags are noisy to some degree. That being said, we should've either poured the contents into a washable bowl or plate or something like that or just used the noise as a deterrent to prevent over-eating

BarryLonx , Alan Levine Report

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Lakota Wolf
Lakota Wolf
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Anyone who has tried to sneak Doritos at 2am without waking up the rest of the house knows that EVERY chip bag is noisy af, clocking in at around 120 decibels XD

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#31

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them Representative Democracy.

anon , Arnaud Jaegers Report

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JoNo
JoNo
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And compulsory voting. Works just fine where I live. Don't want to vote? Get your name crossed off the register then cast a blank ballot paper (it's only compulsory to turn up to vote as no one is made to vote). In my mind, I'm there so I may as well vote. It's the epitome of democracy when over 90% of the population cast a valid vote.

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#32

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them Netbooks.
There is a market nowdays for pocket-sized computers with an actual keyboard and a desktop OS, sadly people saw them only in their infancy when they were slow and sluggish. Manifacturers stopped making them just when technology became small enough to really fit a proper processor inside a little bugger not bigger than 7". Now we got games you can stream from a bigger rig, some office jobs are actually made outside the office, we consume a lot more digital medias, just think about how many people buy bluetooth keyboard for their tablet! If we made netbooks today again, and made them good, and cheap, they would be common sight.

HELLBENT42 , Wesley Fryer Report

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T'Mar of Vulcan
T'Mar of Vulcan
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I still have my netbook! It's still running Windows XP and the screen whites out, but it's great for school if they need an extra laptop (we run EduBoard with a laptop and projector). I let them use mine and I plug in my little netbook.

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#33

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them At the time - alternating current.

Sarma8 , Milicevic01 Report

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#34

The first electric cars. For the people don't know, electric cars were actually invented before gas powered ones, but people back then had so little clue/regard for climate that it never cought on until recently

DART_7 Report

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Billy Harrelson
Billy Harrelson
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It was more about cost back in those early days. The first Ford was an electric vehicle, but the cost was prohibitive. Charging was primitive back then as well and not many rural households were hooked up to electricity.

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#35

Inhaled insulin

dodger69 Report

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40points
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#36

Condoms!

Mecca10 Report

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Sergio Bicerra
Sergio Bicerra
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

After sex ed, we were sure we had to cover our testicles with them.

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#37

NJ vehicle registration expiration stickers. They were issued about 15 years ago. Idea was simple, place sticker in upper right corner of license plate. Next years sticker, place over the old one.

NJ drivers, stick the first one on correctly and subsequent stickers go anywhere on the license plate.

It was pathetic the patterns of stickers I would see. The state stopped sending them out because it clearly didn’t catch on.

urbjam Report

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#38

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them Complicated videogames, they've been super dumbed down over the years.

MettaMorphosis , Marco Arment Report

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PandaRave
PandaRave
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Dear god I wish the original commenter was here so we could roast them about this c**p take

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#39

Dyson hand dryers. Put hands in, slowly pull out over 10 seconds

Dumbf***s just waved hands in a blade of air which dries 5mm wide

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Lakota Wolf
Lakota Wolf
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've never been fond of the idea of air dryers that blow whatever c**p is on your hands into a fine aerosol mist into the surrounding area :p Yes, I know you use them AFTER you wash your hands, but how many people properly wash their hands thoroughly? Plus, many times the bacteria can in fact be colonizing the inside of the hand dryer because it's been aerosolized from the toilets flushing open (no lids down). So, bacteria goes everywhere in the bathroom, some ends up in the air dryer... and you vent it directly onto your hands to dry them :(

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#40

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them Sega Dreamcast?

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Lakota Wolf
Lakota Wolf
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I still have mine! And I still have my Chao tamagotchi-style pet from Sonic on the memory card XD

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#41

The E.U. Hope the Brexiters are happy...

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T'Mar of Vulcan
T'Mar of Vulcan
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

As a British person this pisses me off so much. Whereas before I could go anywhere and live anywhere in the EU, now there are a gazillion hoops to jump through. Arseholes ruined it for everyone.

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#42

Microsoft Lumia phones

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#43

Google glass. The applications for it were massive. Though, I guess it wasn’t that people didn’t “understand it”. It was more that it made you look like a Dragon Ball Z bad guy.

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Temporary Dork
Temporary Dork
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It was expensive and people with privacy issues would remove it from your face.

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#44

Rotary Engines: there was even a big push for GM and others to adopt rotary engines in the 1970s but poor GM design and ill timed oil embargos killed them in the states. Mazda continued development but even the excellent RX series cars were plagued by people not understanding how to care for their rotary engines (read: no turning on for a minute then off, regular coolant checks, oil mixing pump being an important service item) that they developed a stigma of being unreliable.

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Ace
Ace
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Later generations have largely solved reliability issues, but they're still environmentally very unsound due to the amount of unburnt oil being pushed out with the exhaust. Like 2-stroke piston engines, that's the reason that their present usage is so limited, very little to do with reliability.

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#45

PSP Go, so practical and portable.

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Monday
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Except it had no UMD drive and was more expensive than the PSP 3000 series....which was ALREADY practical and portable. So you had to pay MORE money for a smaller screen and you couldn't play any physical games, they all had to be downloaded back in 2009 when internet speeds were s**t.

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#46

Those lytro cameras, you could take a picture completely out of focus and fix it in like 3 seconds, i found it amazing yet the company still went bankrupt.



For some reason people were more interested in [these stupid things](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/AreocIQPSzhsU3AowuhsOiZ7_gc=/0x0:2040x1360/1400x933/filters:focal(863x765:1189x1091):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/59335319/jbareham_180327_2421_0026.0.jpg)

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#47

It still sells well, but the number of people that try to return their Tempurpedic Mattress because it's too firm... It's temperature sensitive material, they refuse to use a heater during winter.

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Giovanni
Giovanni
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Why the f**k would you want a mattress that change firmness, let alone one that changes with temperature?!

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#48

Hahaha, democracy.

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Allen Packard
Allen Packard
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

(Looking around here in the US...) No, I'd say "the rule of the mob" is doing just fine. With predictable results actually.

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#49

Family Guy Online. It shut down because a lot of family guy fans couldn't figure out the game and it was easy as f**k and really fun.

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#50

The Steam Controller, although I blame Valve for not educating the public about it properly, rather than the public being too dumb to understand it. If you're willing to learn how it works, it's one of the finest pieces of engineering you'll hold in your hands as a gamer.

Here's hoping that the Steam Controller 2.0 patents and rumours actually lead to a relaunch and, if so, a specially-designed game or software tools that will teach the user how it works, much like Solitaire taught Windows users how to use the mouse.

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SkekVi
SkekVi
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

But will it be designed so people with joint issues can finally use a game controller, that's my question.

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#51

The yellow line on buses or bus stations.

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#52

Juicero. The people who were too dumb to understand it were the people who created it

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Lakota Wolf
Lakota Wolf
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oh yes, a Wi-Fi connected juicer that used proprietary, single-serving packets of pre-chopped fruits and vegetables that were sold exclusively by the company by subscription. What could possibly go wrong? How could such a perfect product fail? XD /s

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#53

The PS Vita. It was so ahead of it's time

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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That was exactly the problem, not that people were stupid. The Vita came out in a time when many people didn't have great internet at home, so like with the PSP Go a large number of potential customers were alienated from the start. Not including the option to play physical media on your console back in 2011 was stupidity from Sony, not the consumer.

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#54

Game.com

The hand held video game console, day planner, and internet browser (plus more) in one package

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CG
CG
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I watched a sort of documentary about it, and one of the biggest reasons for it's failure was that it had a very small, unremarkable game library. While it has versions of Resident Evil 2, Fighters Megamix, and Mortal Kombat Trilogy, these versions are often considered to be the worst ports of these games. The PDA features were well received, but the games were the biggest shortcomings.

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#55

Steam Link (the box). People didn't seem to realize it wasn't just for games, but was a generic PC "remotifier" of screen, keyboard, mouse and possible controller.

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tweeve
tweeve
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

you can still turn just about any old PC into a steam link system. I did it a couple of months ago I streamed a game from my gaming PC to an old laptop so I could play a game with a friend.

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#56

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them HE clothes washers. Worked at Lowes in appliances and people just couldn’t wrap their heads around the lack of an agitator

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Purple light
Purple light
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Never seen one with an agitator here in the Netherlands. Had to Google what it is.

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#57

The Pied Piper Platform.

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#58

The Internet

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Monday
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don't think we can call the internet a failed product. Destroyed perhaps, but not failed.

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#59

3DO console

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Monday
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wasn't the issue here that there weren't enough good games too?

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#60

Don't forget Microsoft "Bob".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bob

Tech people wouldn't touch it and non-techies couldn't understand it.

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#61

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them The Atari 2600 ET game

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Monday
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oh come on. This game was s**t. It wasn't difficult or clever....just a really bad cash grab.

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#62

40 Products That Failed Just Because People Were Too Stupid To Understand Them The Printing Press. Or rather what some accept as the earliest example of movable type that we have evidence for the Minoan Phaistos Disc

“An early clear incidence for the realization of the typographic principle is the notorious Phaistos Disc (ca. 1800–1600 B.C.). If the disc is, as assumed, a textual representation, we are really dealing with a "printed" text, which fulfills all definitional criteria of the typographic principle. The spiral sequencing of the graphematical units, the fact that they are impressed in a clay disc (blind printing!) and not imprinted are merely possible technological variants of textual representation. The decisive factor is that the material "types" are proven to be repeatedly instantiated on the clay disc.”

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Lakota Wolf
Lakota Wolf
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oh yes, the printing press. Much fail. Totally failed. Absolutely was a failure. /s

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#63

Samsung A7 speakers need an it degree to set up. Fortunately Sonos is around the corner.

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#64

Diesel gas/engines in cars

Until people cares about mpg

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#65

The M16 almost failed for multiple reasons. One of those reasons was a lack of maintenance because a lot of people though that the rifle was self-cleaning.

Another reason why the design failed was because the US Military abandoned their 30 aux 06 round present in earlier rifles, such as the M1 Garand, in favor of the lighter NATO 5.56mm round. This made people doubt its reliability.

Of course, the last reason why the design failed was because of a flaw with the design itself, but as per the question, I gave the two reasons why it failed because of the people using it.

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Matt
Matt
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I prefer a 30 ought 6 the 30 aux 6 just doesn't shoot as well

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#66

Rubik’s cube

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Ace
Ace
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah, a huge failure. Sold so few of them that hardly anybody still has at least one kicking about in a cupboard or drawer somewhere. Oh, hang on...

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