People think they’re values stay constant. They change all the time. Here’s a simple example. It may seem like it’s on a small or unimportant. The principle applies to lots of places.

When I was a kid Sony came out with the Walkman, revolutionizing listening to music. You could bring a cassette with you anywhere and listen to it without bothering others.

Suddenly people who never felt they needed music anytime anywhere felt they did.

A couple years ago they needed the latest mp3 players. More to the point, they would shoot themselves if they had to make do with a device like the Walkman

• You have to buy new batteries all the time
• Up to about ten songs
• Have to listen to songs in fixed order
• Skipping forward takes minutes and drains the batteries
• Bigger than a deck of cards
• Have to carry tapes with you

By today’s standards that thing is garbage yet at the time people spent hundreds of dollars for them.

Strike that. By today’s standards, people would shoot themselves if they had to make to with mp3 players from a few years ago. Today they need smartphones. A couple years from now today’s smartphones will be garbage to the same people who today “need” them.

I get caught up in hype too. It seems most people do. If you don’t, I bet you once caught yourself getting caught up in hype like this. Or probably a few times.

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