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Comment by al_borland | Hacker News Reader

I get the point of it, but I’ve had countless conversations with people wearing sunglasses, or ski goggles, where I couldn’t see their eyes and it wasn’t a major problem.

If I’m having a serious conversation with someone, I’d expect them to take the headset off, just like I’d expect them to put their phone down, or look away from their laptop.

With all the negative press they’ve gotten for it, I assume they will put a significant amount of energy into improving the quality of the eye sight for version 2.

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Back when this all started, there was a word for people who insist on interacting with others while wearing tech on their face: glasshole. The message it sends is, "You're not worth me putting my screen down for a minute to have a conversation."

With Google Glass at least you were actually seeing their real eyes. I always got the vibe that the attitude came from the fact that 1) looking at you also pointed a camera at you 2) you could never tell what the person wearing the glasses was looking at while talking to you, if anything.

If people start wearing this thing to go grocery shopping, you'll probably get similar reaction. If people are obviously in the middle of doing something and you walk up to ask them a question, I'd expect that would be less of an issue.

Being a glass hole wasn’t just about wearing tech while talking to people. It was more about how smug the users were and how overtly “look at me” the interaction was.

It was just because glass rhymes with ass, and people didn't like other people wearing cameras.

Google glass user behavior also rhymed with asshole.

Before that was “Bluetooth Johnson” that you’d see running around at airports with their Bluetooth ear piece and a BlackBerry.

That’s changed a bit with Airpods (and the like) has it not?

The exact same product features with savvier marketing makes the Apple users appear more suave: it's still a Bluetooth headset or a camera strapped on someone's face, just with Apple branding.

People don't like people who can afford more expensive things.

That was also a time when it was rude generally rude to have earbuds in when interacting with people, meetings needed to be done face to face, and having anything covering you face was just viscerally rejected by a chunk of the population.

The consensus has changed a lot in the meantime, or at least you'll find your group that doesn't care about any of that.

I still think it's rude to not remove your earbuds when talking to people. I even feel that way when people don't remove their AirPods when they quickly interact with the person working at the check-out counter in the grocery store. It's kind of degrading.

I kinda saw the point a decade or two ago. As of today we have transparency mode where the person might actually hear you better with the buds on, then bone conduction where putting or removing them makes no sense, then ear cuff types etc.

It's just so much more complex that having someone remove whatever they're wearing feels like an anachronism. It can still be a nice gesture, but as it becomes devoid of meaning it's also to me signaling that we don't trust the other person to understand they have our attention (through eye contact, actual conversation etc) if we don't overdo it.

arguably there is not so much difference between AirPods in transparency mode and a hearing aid these days.

i share your feeling and remove earbuds. but it’s starting to feel like taking your hat off — purely symbolic gesture.

Glasshole - love it.

Gargoyle is also apt.

> Gargoyle is also apt.

For those who don't know, this is a Snow Crash reference. Quoting Wikipedia: "Stephenson also describes a subculture of people choosing to remain continuously connected to the Metaverse by wearing portable terminals, goggles and other equipment; they are nicknamed "gargoyles" [...]"

I absolutely hate talking to people who are wearing sunglasses. Not seeing peoples eyes is very offputting.

I think the goal is that people live their lives with their cell phone strapped permanently to their face, so they need to incentivize you to take it off as little as possible.

Honestly I think the front display is the first thing they will drop when they try to get the price down so regular people can buy it.

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