palmerpink

Don't get me wrong; I'm really excited about my new phone. Hot specs, good camera, cute look, you name it--it's got all the telltale signs of sexy new tech. But what is this lustful excitement--and how reasonable is it? At its simplest, this excitement is the marvel of novelty. The New Thing with Its New Stuff . But how long is novelty to last? How much impact, in the long term, can novelty really offer? And what is left after novelty dissolves in the flowing liquid of time? Here are some loosely organized notes on the subject. What comprises this novelty? Of course, the literal newness is part of that novelty, but there's even arguably a novelty in the old newly acquired; I may come late to the party on some new device (as in some ways I almost have here with my forthcoming Pixel 2), but it will still be a new device to me with--to me, at least--new features. Which is another, if not greater, aspect of the novelty: the differentiation of features. This phone