Turning away from soaring because of how the glider looks just doesn't
seem valid to me, but that's just me.

Yes. *As somebody else mentioned, it exhibits a serious shallowness on the
part of the person who rejects the experience. *Maybe it really has to do
with current youth expecting instant gratification in all things.


The guy from the garage sale I was talking about was like 60 years
old... so your 'it's just the youth of today' argument is not actually
relevant to the situation you're commenting on. The story he relayed
to me was unsolicited and unfiltered, so it provides an honest and I
feel valuable insight into what wasn't a game-stopping problem for
most glider dorks on ras (myself included), but is a real issue
nonetheless.

If this were a trivial issue, the advertising industry would not be a
multi-trillion dollar juggernaut. In a world full of enticing choices,
the CEO of XXX corporation doesn't expect people to simply buy their
products 'just because', no matter how useful or wonderful the
products may be. Honest effort is put into trying to figure out how to
best supplant their idea/image, to most widely sell their wares most
effectively with particular emphasis on generating new users (ensuring
survival), and their advertising dept most likely takes the psychology
of aesthetics and marketing pretty seriously.

And what of it if today's youth want 'instant gratification'? Should
that not then be the goal for soaring operations to provide? If that
is our reality, than we either need to adapt to it or fade into
irrelevance.


-Paul