Why to always buy tech in the goldilocks zone
Once in a while, the universe chooses to move at the speed of light and iPhones are born, jet engines are invented and radio frequency bands are discovered.
The rest of the time, a slow evolutionary process keeps ticking away when these technologies are incremented in short bursts owing to customer demand and to what is economically viable and scientifically possible.
Take a car for example, where the historic changes were automatic transmission, hybrids, electric and possibly hydrogen fueled. Rest of the time, year after year, you get new models with headlights in LED, warmer seats, apple car play compatibility or another 3 speakers added to the existing 6 for some kind of cinematic experience. Ridiculous as some of these sound, they reflect the extra price that customers are expected to pay to stay with top of the line.
Being top of the line enthusiast is almost a symptom of an underlying condition for uncontrolled consumerism — The companies make best use of it by inserting random technically cool but meaningless bits from Radial Root Cyclone technology in vacuum cleaners to dynamic alloy wheels in nuclear grey (it seems to be the color) for cars to Acoustic Surface Audio+ technology providing multi-dimensional sound in TV.
The same goes for advertisement on cars and laptops which have a note at the bottom saying: comes with a particular speaker brand name which i find utterly confusing yet exhilarating— these names sound danish, dutch or german but otherwise really sound all the same: Sennheiser, bang and olufsen, harman kardon etc. — I will never be sure if this is a co-branding requirement or just to bait easy catch.
The other problem with buying the latest and greatest is that these items are coming straight from the lab and while government regulated safety and quality tests have been done, there is always that odd issue with butterfly keyboards ttyppingg lllke teeehis, bending touchscreens cracking, airbags not deploying and baby cribs toppling over.
It pays (to yourself) if you let the first few iterations pass by and settle on at least the second or preferably the third best in line item. Buy a 2018 model car in 2020, get a plug in hybrid instead of an all electric, get an Iphone 11(refurbished) when it is time for the iPhone 13, a 13 inch mac instead of the 16 or 12, a mach 3 when they have 5 blades (seriously?)!
For one, you will save money, for two you will have a tried and tested product which has been thoroughly vetted by customers and all known errors have been fixed — last but nevertheless least, you wont feel as bad when you break one of these by accident.
There is one last piece of advice there: always buy extra warranty or dealership goodies which go along with these items — you are already saving a bunch of money and you can use a portion of that saving to secure your investment for the next couple of years. Get your apple care, buy the used car from the official dealership to get a year of warranty, check if the store is offering their own insurance for their 32 inch 1080 full HD tv (in the midst of the 120 inch 4k onslaught).
Do not get caught up in the rat race for the best cheese — it is a clear and present trap — Just remember a picture will not be better with extra lenses or pixels but with making memories therein and a movie experience is better owing to its sounds rather than it screen size, color or resolution.
