I talked to some people at college about bitcoin and they laughed at me.

[alkaz]

yeah, i talked to my co-workers, they laughed at me too
i try to explained to them, but they said its a scam 

[muasktak10]

You have stupid friends. Find some smarter ones, or stick to talking about guns, girls, cars, and beer.

I'm gay, a liberal, drive a prius, and don't drink alcohol.

[bitcool]

For people who made up their minds that bitcoin is a scam, a$1000 or$10,000 price tag won't change their minds. they will still hoping one day they'd be proven correct. Believe it or not.

[cr1776]

I remember that on Slashdot too. I also remember in 1993 and 1994 people saying how the internet was a fad and I was wasting time registering a bunch of domain names.  One or two years later they were not laughing when Disney bought one etc.

Ditto here with bitcoin.  It is fine to explain to people, but then they make their choices and decisions and have to live with it.  I wouldn't let them bring you down, just do your thing.

That's what happened to the first people who tried to share their interest for Bitcoin on Slashdot. They were ridiculed, and the comment section turned into an enormous heap of scorn and sarcasm. I was there and remember asking to myself why people like slashdoters who have once lived the situation of being considered like lunatics can become so arrogant and do exactly the same to other people. That day, I ignored the comments and started to mine Bitcoin, but 99% of people on the thread just flocked with the bullies and missed the opportunity of becoming a second generation early adopter.
But now look at slashdot comments when a Bitcoin discussion is started: where is the scorn? Where is the sarcasm? It was all replaced by bitterness and cynism: people regret hat they didn't listen. Now they just want to avoid the subject. They were among the first people informed about Bitcoin and they just fucked up, and now they can only blame themselves.
So don't worry, you did your job by giving them the opportunity to be open minded and jump on the bandwagon. If they don't, they will likely regret it bitterly in a few years and you can just give them a pat in the back and pay them a round of drinks with all the money you have made.

[imamanandyou]

When I talk about Bitcoins to others I using torrent analogy. It is peer to peer as well but instead of sharing files you share transactions. The point is with peer to peer, it can not be closed down, thus very reliable monetary service in the long run

[dserrano5]

I've brought it up on a nearly daily basis but the funniest was a particularly obvoxious coworker of mine who I informed of bitcoin last year when it was around $20 per coin .... was funny when he found out it broke to nearly $260 in the last rise ... he thought he got a last laugh when it dropped back to $90 and I had to not-so-subtly remind him that $90 is greater than $20 throughout the known universe.... and I got to laugh again when it got above $200 this time....

Almost same story here. I first told them at 20 EUR. Of course some time after that they laughed about the April crash and I had to tell them that 20 EUR was still way less than the bottom of the crash. Only difference is that I didn't bring it up again when 160 EUR last week, but on 125 suggesting them to buy.

[El Extranjero]

That's unfortunate knowing that you received those kind of responses on a college campus.
Here I thought college students developed an open mind being taught critical thinking skills that they've
lacked all k-12. In my campus I've received a bit of awe from the listeners. Planting seeds of curiosity never hurts.
You should try introducing Bitcoin to a different group of students.

[dserrano5]

You will be the on laughing in a year or two

Well everyone is different. I won't laugh if/when we reach the moon. Just as regular people have "better" things to do with their fiat (?), I have better things to do with my coins rather than laughing at people.

Another option is, you know, telling everyone you lost them all in the next big scam.

[countryfree]

Never talk about mining, nor about investing in BTC. I've introduced BTC to many people, and I describe it as an electronic, immaterial  currency to make quick and cheap exchanges internationally. All the people I talked were very interested. Mining is for geeks and I hate computers, so it's not for me, but I enjoy the ability to send money abroad without any middleman taking his cut.

[CurbsideProphet]

I use Rainman as the example when trying to explain ASICs.  Maybe it's not politically correct since you're dealing with autism but I find it's what people can relate to.  In the move, Raymond was exceptionally good at counting numbers but he couldn't function very well in every day society.  This is very similar to ASICs, as it's extremely good at doing one particular task but not very good at doing a large variety of tasks (like a personal computer would).  Maybe that's a way you can explain it to your friends, they can't buy a computer off Ebay the same way a normal person wouldn't be able to memorize an entire phone book like Rainman.

[Pente]

I have decided after many years of living that most men don't actually want to be successful at either money or ladies. They think they want success, but deep down inside, they prefer being failures. They ignore all my advice, despite seeing how well I do and even offers to help them. Maybe a psychologist could explain it to me.

but for now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkJ_0WqBQns

[thoughtfan]

People don't really take it seriously yet. I've tried to explain the concept to a few friends but they still think the whole thing is BS.

that's great. it's when everyone and his grandma will invest in btc that i would go for the exit.

Is it not likely by the time everyone and his grandma is buying they're not 'investing', rather either buying to protect wealth from a hyperinflating fiat or buying because it makes more sense and is easier to use to buy stuff than fiat.  And if fiat is hyperinflating what are you exiting to? Not USD is my hunch!

[Rez]

You have stupid friends. Find some smarter ones, or stick to talking about guns, girls, cars, and beer.

I'm gay, a liberal, drive a prius, and don't drink alcohol.

You could ... talk about your dick, um ... I got nothin'.

[BitChick]

For people who made up their minds that bitcoin is a scam, a$1000 or$10,000 price tag won't change their minds. they will still hoping one day they'd be proven correct. Believe it or not.

Right!?  Human nature I guess.  I suppose people have this deep rooted desire to be "right" or think that they know it all.

I am well aware that it might be a bit crazy to take the risk we have to invest a sizable amount of the small cash savings we have acquired into Bitcoin but after weighing the pros and cons it seemed crazy not to take that risk too.  I think it takes a person that can "think outside the box" to really look into Bitcoin though.

[Zaih]

Fuck what they think. They'll look back on this as the first time they heard about Bitcoin. And it will definitely be a very bad memory in regard to their ignorance!

[wachtwoord]

You have stupid friends. Find some smarter ones, or stick to talking about guns, girls, cars, and beer.

I'm gay, a liberal, drive a prius, and don't drink alcohol.

You could ... talk about your dick, um ... I got nothin'.

My advice? Take up drinking

[Francisco]

I remember the /. articles.  I remember laughing when I didn't understand.  I'm just glad I finally came to my senses and took the time to understand the implications.

People use humor to try to make light of what they do not understand.  Don't be a preacher but a representative.

[BTCtrader71]

One thing I'm always sure to tell people first is, "When I first heard of Bitcoin it sounded totally ridiculous. I was ready to write it off completely but I had a few lingering questions. I looked into those and realized there could be something to it. Eventually something clicked and I saw that it deserved at least some research. A few days of intense research made me realize it was actually probably legit, for many counterintuitive reasons that require some understanding of both ecnomics and cryptography to fully appreciate. Eventually with further research all my questions were answered and I realized it was definitely legit and would probably change the world."

I often follow a similar tack when talking to people about bitcoin, something along these lines:

"When I first heard about bitcoin I thought it sounded even worse than fiat because neither was it backed by a commodity, nor was it supported by legal tender laws. I predicted that bitcoin would never see any active trading, and if it ever even hypothetically managed to do so, its value would quickly plummet to zero. Then, I learned that bitcoin exchanges existed and that bitcoin was in fact actively traded, with a rising valuation over an extended period of time. IOW, the actual data blew my prediction out of the water. That's when I knew I had something to learn, and that is always an exciting moment for me."

[tclo]

Most people don't have a level of intelligence to understand bitcoin.  It is counter-intuitive to non-smart people.

[tclo]

I remember that on Slashdot too. I also remember in 1993 and 1994 people saying how the internet was a fad and I was wasting time registering a bunch of domain names.  One or two years later they were not laughing when Disney bought one etc.

Ditto here with bitcoin.  It is fine to explain to people, but then they make their choices and decisions and have to live with it.  I wouldn't let them bring you down, just do your thing.

Or go back to the 70s and 80s when everyone who used a computer was a "geek".

Now everyone uses them and eventually everyone will use bitcoin.

And those who bought Microsoft stock in the 80s did pretty well too.