In your opinion, what is a thing that lived up to the hype it had or still has?

The Steam Deck. Awesome, awesome device.

can't remember the last time i was this happy with a purchase

The Nintendo Switch when it came out. I was super hyped and somehow the console even exceeded my expectations.

Playing Breath of the Wild for the first time was amazing and even after 6 years the console still feels modern to me.

Yep, every time someone mentions how long it's been out, it surprises me again. It still 'Nintendo's brand new console' to me.
- I feel you. The PS3 is still "last generation" to me and a Core 2 Duo still feels like a powerful new processor.
The concept feels modern, but I wish they made a second Gen model of the joycons by now.
- Or a second gen model of the Switch. I was really hoping they'd announce something at the direct today but nope!
And then Tears of the Kingdom in turn lived up to the hype set for it. So great
To add to that, I’d also say a lot of games on the console lived up to the hype. Mario Odyssey, Metroid Dread, and of course both Zeldas are some of the best games of the past few years.

Bluetooth earbuds. Took me the longest time to buy a pair. Now I have them all the time.

I thought airpods/cordless buds were stupid when they first came out, I thought I would instantly lose the buds. now I can’t live without them.
If they would make it so that the batteries could be replaced and recycled then it would be more sustainable.
Audiophile headphones are my hype good. I have a pair of Sony xm3 noise cancelling, and they're very nice and very useful. I have some nice Jabra earbuds, and they're very convenient and sound pretty good too.

But... Man. Nice headphones with a nice amp and dac, with nice recordings. It's just incomparable in quality. On the bt stuff you get left and right. But on the audiophile stuff you get close, far, left, right, behind, soft, punchy, up, down, and it all sounds even better. And no compression artifacting! No garble, no batteries, no waiting to connect, and they'll last decades as daily drivers and then have replaceable parts even after that.

Also, nice speakers are worth the hype. Just buy real studio monitors like a pair of Yamaha hs8's. You'll never need to upgrade pc speakers ever.
- Good sound gear is one of those things where you have no idea the difference it makes until you try it. Particularly if you’re coming from AirPods, etc
I've recently discovered how great the neckband style ones are. So convienient to just always have them around my neck, never have to worry about losing them. Battery life is better than the buds too, I get like a day and a half out of them.
The only problem with them is that ever since I updated to Windows 11, my laptop no longer connects to any Bluetooth devices and absolutely nothing will fix this issue.

But that's hardly the headphones fault, it's this shitty operating system.
Sammmme. I was so against having to charge headphones to listen to them. No idea they would last as long as they did on one charge and my god do they perform well.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy
The Harry Potter books and films

The polio vaccine.

SSD.
It is way way faster than HDD.
I can't use HDD-only PC anymore.

I had an extra SATA port on the side of my laptop that resembled a CD-ROM drive. Plugged in new SSD, installed win10, and it was so much faster. The original installation is festering until I finally back up all the data, cause I'm a data hoarder apparently. Doesn't help I used the old drive, now D:\ as storage.
Yep, when I got myself a new pc I was surprised at the speed of the sata ssd. I want to get a NVME SSD but everything is expensive in my country

E-bikes.

I got a couple of electric scooters for me and my gf to fuck around on. Ended up selling my car.
- Yeah I occasionally hire one of the escooters they have around town. They're a blast. Been thinking about selling my car and just buying my own
- How hard are you finding it? My wife and I tried fucking around on our car once but there wasn’t enough room. How are y’all achieving it on a scooter? Any tips you can share?

MRNA vaccines. Not only have they saved millions of lives from COVID, they look like they are going to revolutionize other areas as well. For example, there is a wide-range cancer vaccine under development.

Vaccines. My uncle had Polio as a child and so my Grandmother was still advocating strongly for vaccines before her death at 98. I'm happy to have received my first Shingrix shot last week. It's amazing we can get a poke, with something that's completely gone from the body in a week but we will have T-cells protecting us for a very long time.

Lasers. They seem to have endless uses from playing with cats, scientific measurements, military, construction, heating, cooling, even used for space-based internet communications. There’s so many more uses that I’m not using.

A fucking laser gave me what I still maintain is my weirdest memory ever.

I was in my upstairs bedroom, shining my little handheld laser into the park across the road from my house. Since it was so dark, the laser dot seemed to travel an extreme distance compared to what I was used to during the day, so I was just enjoying pointing it at anything interesting - just random shit like reflective signs, trashcans, anything shiny or metallic.

After about five minutes, I decided to start toying around with the dot on a little sign that was sitting next to a small lake in the middle of the park, when all of a sudden, and I'm not really sure how to explain this, but I'll try; for a split second, the red light from the laser reflected off EVERYTHING in the vicinity for about 700 meters in all directions - all the reflective signs, any water surfaces, all the houses on the other side of the park, car windows, metallic objects, etc. I was so fucking taken aback, that I stopped and tried to contemplate what the hell had just happened. I was wide awake and this happened clear as day right in front of me.

To this day, I've still found no way of explaining how such a weak laser was able to a) reflect so much light off so many (hundreds) of surfaces simultaneously, if only for a fraction of a second, and b) if this is somehow a physical possibility, how perfectly everything in that park, alongside my own positioning from my house, would have had to align for each object to then perfectly - and without losing any luminosity - reflect the light into the next surface hundreds of times.

It's this shit that makes me think that just maybe those 'glitch in the matrix' people are onto something.

EDIT: So I guess to stick to the topic at hand, another use case for lasers is making me question the laws of physics.
- Maybe you hit something reflective and beamed it right back into your eye?
you can also shine them in your eyes!
- Still having your eyesight is also one of those things that aren't overhyped.
- But never point them at a mirror (it's the law).

Tv, The internet, the smallpox vaccine

Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse

way exceeded the hype

Yeah, it's a really good story and the mix between 2d and 3d is beautiful

Lemmy >> reddit

Change my mind?

The Steam Deck. I thought it was overhyped and it would just be another "sounds great but actually isn't that good" product like the Steam Controller or the Steam Link. Then I got one as a present. Hot damn is that thing amazing.

LeBron. He came out of HS as the "chosen one" and dominated the NBA most of his career. He could have easily have crumbled under the pressure and instead ended up being a top 3 all time player.

Also, no major scandals. Seems like a decent father to his kids, been with the same girl the whole time. No cheating or partying or rumors of shady behavior or other bs.

Linux, the internet, Smartphones and, IMO, in that order. The last two would be incrementally worse without the first one.

PS. I suppose you have to include e=mc^2 as well...

Red Dead Redemption 2 what a game. As a dev myself it's just awesome that there are still people respecting every inch of a video game. The animations, the story, the side activities, the acting, the underlying systems that are nearly prepared for everything. It's just insane. I lived like a hermit in the woods when it came out.

Such a masterpiece. Rockstar came under fire for working people a bit too hard to get this done, but damn the result is breathtaking.

The Wire. It really is the greatest TV show ever made like people say it is.

A few years ago I finally saw Goodfellas for the first time. I watch a lot of movies, and I was certainly aware of it when it came out, it’s just one of those movies that I somehow never ended up watching. Of course I loved it and got it on Blu-ray immediately afterwards. But it sounds funny if I ever try to bring it up around anyone, like I’m saying ‘man that classic movie everyone loves, apparently it’s pretty good’.

Just rewatched Goodfellas for the umpteenth time this weekend. I don't normally like rewatching movies, but this is one I can watch over and over.

Smart Phones

Minecraft. Still super fun and there are servers for literally everyone (from pure vanilla to factions to semi-anarchy and anarchy)

Tears of the Kingdom. A sequel to a game that swept the floor with all game awards that took 7 years, and it is getting nothing but glowing reviews.

Worth every day of the wait!

Smartphones. I only got one in 2012 and basically went from an old Nokia to having a flat computer in my pocket.

James Webb telescope
🍕
Dirty Dancing 😉

More recent one, but tears of the kingdom is really the game I wanted it to be. Game of the year, maybe of the decade :D

The Spiderverse movies are fantastic in animation, action, and story. The first movie is fantastical with comedy and a hero's journey story backed by revolutionary animation for the time. The second movie ups the ante with a superhero story that truly never feels forced, drama that tore my boyfriend apart, and so many plotlines that each get the respect they deserve. And then more...

Cooking food over a fire has worked out pretty well for us so far

Pokémon Go. Like a typical hype you are sceptic at first, try it, see why everyone loves it and then see how the hype cools off again. But for those few weeks in the summer it first came out it was a blast. I met so many new people, the whole atmosphere of walking in a random neighborhood just completely changed.

Better Call Saul. I just finished the series a few days ago and I thought it was amazing. At the moment I believe it's actually better than Breaking Bad so I'm gonna have to go and watch that next to compare.

Holy crap did they finally finish the series? If so, I'm going to watch that last season!

Sous vide cooking. I jumped onto this as soon as the original Anova launched. People around me thought I was weird even though it was a well tested tech in large kitchens. They stopped laughing as soon as they tried my steaks. Now it is used by non-enthusiasts and most people know what it is. At least they do here in Norway.

The film BOOGIE NIGHTS.

If we're going with movies here, I'd like to add:
A classic one - The Godfather
A current one - Dune
- Citizen friggin Kane. Casablanca.
  
  Damn. Those are some good films.

I think the image of the black hole that was generated a couple years ago lived up to the hype. Both scientifically theorized and layman's guessed imagery of a black hole was pretty on point.

PCR

PCR?
- Polymerase chain reaction. Was next in line of "this will revolutionize science and change everything." Actually did revolutionize and change everything.
  
  Without getting into too much detail, it's a way of isolating and amplifying DNA. You can screen for nearly anything quickly and easily (now). Doesn't sound app that important, until you see how it's being used.

The super mario movie. I went in expecting it to be good, and I enjoyed it far more than I was expecting

I absolutely adore the mario franchise, and I was so so excited for the movie. Exceeded my expectations. As soon as I saw it was available for purchase on apple tv I bought it to watch again. It is clear a lot of care went into it.
I went to see the original Pirates Of The Caribbean movie knowing almost nothing about it and having no expectations other than air conditioning and cheap popcorn (a bit of a miracle to begin with). I think one of my friends said they heard good things about it. Turned out to be remarkably fun, so that's a pleasant memory right there.

Elden Ring is the first thing to come to mind. I feel like it totally exceeded expectations no matter what you're experience with the soulsborne games was prior

Sex

Milk.

Maybe a hot take, but Cyberpunk 2077. I didn't experience most of the bugs people complained about and I loved almost everything about the game and world. It's also only gotten better as they've patched it.

For me, it could never live up to the hype. But I am glad some people have enjoyed it so much and it has come a hell of a long way since release. I've been playing recently but going to wait for the new DLC and restart.
I know I was kinda blinded by the potential early on, bu the world is the most ambitious ever created in a video game. The fact that all of the missions use it at face value is really crazy IMO. The game is groundbreaking for that alone.

Book - Pride and Prejudice

Generative AI. Copyright maximalists and academics who are far-too-precious-about-their-particular-brand-of-bullshit may hate away, but the technology works, it works really well (and better every day), and the possibilities it's unlocking for creative output are incredible.

Super random but getting laser hair removal. As cursed lady I maybe shave like once a month maximum now as opposed to twice a week. Yes it's cheaper to shave but my vision is horrible even with glasses (and I can't wear my glasses in the shower) so shaving is difficult... now I hardly have to think about it!

Everyone also talks about lasik for eyes being the best thing they've ever done. I would totally do it if it didn't totally freak me out and rely on me lying still and not blinking.

Lasers are cool.

Hereditary

I can think of so many things that don't. Some of them in this post's comments.

Ice cold soda, beer, or fresh lemonade on a hot day. There's hype around all of them, and every single time I'm blown away.

Disturbed's classic albums. Going back and listening to them now, I'm still staggered by how good they sound and how hard songs like "ten thousand fists" hit you. Extremely overproduced, but hilariously smooth like melted butter.

Analog stuff (vs digital). I've long-time been an advocate for digital being cheaper, easier, and just as good. But... In reality, in so many cases, pure analog is just so much better, both subjectively and sometimes also still objectively. Don't write this stuff off so easy, the old farts aren't completely irrelevant. And at worse, it's another flavor that's extremely difficult to emulate perfectly.

Fresh strawberries/fruit. I've had a lot of strawberries in my life. I'm West Coast and used to live in California. A lot. But I'd never gone out to a you-pick farm. Man. Those strawberries were RIDICULOUSLY good. I think somebody there said it was a new breed of strawberry, but DAMN.

Knowing and loving yourself. This will be a lifelong challenge for most people, and some may never fully get there. But the ability to know and understand yourself and be honest to yourself while also learning to love yourself is huge. Spend the effort when you can, because this life is all you get. Human life is painfully short, and spending important parts of it being emotionally constipated is incredibly regrettable and sad. Make that bread, smile at a random person, buy the damn flowers, go on that trip, watch the sunset. I know that sometimes life can be hard and people can be unbelievably shitty. Just remember to breathe.

Which brings me to my last one: meditation. I don't mediate regularly. My parents both do and swear by it, but they can be irritating boomers. But, that being said, I have organically come to the conclusion on my own that sometimes you have to close your eyes, take some deep breaths, remember who you are, quiet the outside world and all the shitty shit out there and in there, and find some peace and solid ground. It can always be worse, but you have to try to stay in the here-and-now if it isn't a pit or a horrible place. Be thankful for being alive and then hear the space around you and accept the present. Some people call this meditation or something, so I guess that's what the hype is all about. If you don't need it, that's awesome.. but if you feel like your life is getting away from you, the hype just doesn't do it justice.

Smartphones.