History WebVideo / Techmoan

* SunkCostFallacy: Touched on in the retrospective of the RCA UsefulNotes/{{CED}} Videodisc; Mat suggests that RCA only bothered bringing their ill-fated videodisc format to market, even after it had been soundly beaten by the technically superior UsefulNotes/LaserDisc, because they had sunk over $600m into its development, production and marketing over nearly 20 years.

* SelfDeprecation: Mat quite frequently acknowledges his pursuit of old entertainment hardware can appear ridiculous to outside observers. Even as early as the second video on his main channel (a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imhbTB8AXKs review]] of ''3D Sector-X'' on the UsefulNotes/{{Vectrex}}), he narrates over video of himself wearing the ridiculous Vectrex 3D reproduction headset (made out of a welder's mask and a CD drive motor) suggesting that if you've gone this far in your retro-gaming hobby, it's perhaps time to take a long hard look at yourself...

* RunningGag: In earlier videos, making fun of Youtube commenters who insistently tell him he must replace all the caps (capacitors) in every device he demonstrates.

* WeAllLiveInAmerica: As noted in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU3BceoMuaA MiniDisc - An Appreciation]]'', this trope was responsible for the general perception of [=MiniDisc=] not lining up with Mat's perception of the format. Mat is and always has been incredibly familiar with it because he lives in the UK, a market where it was reasonably successful, and was confused when people were fascinated with it as he didn't see it as all that unusual. However, most English-language technology outlets are based in the United States, a market where [=MiniDisc=] [[AmericansHateTingle failed to take off]], resulting in modern netizens erroneously regarding it as having been a flop ''everywhere''.

* CripplingOverspecialization: Mat blames Sansui's exclusive focus on hi-fi for their DorkAge in the mid-80s and subsequent eventual decline into their InNameOnly incarnation, since they were unable to cope with the changing market for hi-fi systems.

** A lot of the obscure gadgets Mat has covered failed in the marketplace due to this. Case in point, the TEAC O'Casse cassette, with small reels that could be removed like a reel-to-reel tape but played in a standard cassette deck. The concept never took off because changing reels was so tedious.

* WeAllLiveInAmerica: As noted in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU3BceoMuaA MiniDisc - An Appreciation]]'', this trope was responsible for the general perception of [=MiniDisc=] not lining up with Mat's perception of the format. Mat is and always has been incredibly familiar with it because he lives in the UK, a market where it was reasonably successful, and was confused when people were fascinated with it as he didn't see it as all that unusual. However, most English-language technology outlets are based in the United States, a market where [=MiniDisc=] failed to take off, resulting in modern netizens erroneously regarding it as having been a flop ''everywhere''.

* GlobalIgnorance: One step in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57cUS9pWTXI&t=112s How to Write A Youtube Comment - in 10 Steps]]'' is demonstrating borderline xenophobic ignorance of countries you aren't native to and don't live in. The [=YouTube=] Pedant demonstrates this by adding "You called it a speaker, in our zip code we call those Zucchinis. Dumb Aussie go back to Ceylon[[note]]an archaic colonial name for UsefulNotes/SriLanka that only a FishOutOfTemporalWater or Empire-nostalgic irredentist would call the country outside a historical context[[/note]]."
** After a complaint that he didn't put prices in [[ExactWords dollars]], he started putting in text overlays giving prices in Canadian dollars, Australian dollars, Fijian dollars...