The Cult of the New
2010 has seen a ton of books released already that I鈥檇 love to read, from by Andrew Young to by Rebecca Skloot. (I happen to be passionate about books, of course 鈥� perhaps your passion is films or video games or gadgets or music or something else entirely.)
Five years ago, I would have rushed to the bookstore and picked up these titles in hardback. I would have been completely impatient to read them, so I would have just thrown down the $20 or so, picked up the hardback, and headed home with it. About twenty percent of the time, I would have read the book once, stuck it back on a shelf somewhere, and ignored it as it gathered dust. The other eighty percent of the time, I wouldn鈥檛 even have read it before it started gathering dust on the shelf.
Why did I do this? There were several factors 鈥� I didn鈥檛 have the time I wanted to have to read, for one 鈥� but the biggest one was what I like to call the 鈥渃ult of the new.鈥�
Simply put, the 鈥渃ult of the new鈥� is the willingness to pay a premium price for whatever the newest releases are. When something new comes out, you鈥檙e inordinately focused on it because it鈥檚 new. It pops up again and again.
If a new restaurant opens, you have to visit it even if the reviews are mediocre.
If a new book or album comes out, you have to pick it up.
If a new car is released, you can鈥檛 help but swing by the dealership to scope it out.
It鈥檚 a very expensive routine. You constantly overpay for things in terms of their actual quality 鈥� instead, you pay a premium for the 鈥渘ew.鈥� You pay new release prices for DVDs and for film tickets. You pay hardcover prices for books. And, in the end, you get far less for your dollar 鈥� or you dig yourself into a financial hole.
Some people do it with some level of social justification 鈥� they need to keep up with (or keep ahead of) their friends. To them, I say that if your friends value you only because of what鈥檚 on your shelves or where you ate last night, there鈥檚 not much depth to the friendship.
Others do it to feel good about themselves, so that they feel current. This is perhaps even more dangerous, because you鈥檙e tying your self-esteem and happiness to material things and short-term experiences. Without a constant influx of these things, you begin to feel bad about yourself. True self-worth comes from within, not from external things, and it took me a very long (and painful) time to learn that lesson.
It took me years to break out of the 鈥渃ult of the new.鈥� Here are some of the things that really helped me.
I adopted a firm rule about buying such new things 鈥� I 诲辞苍鈥檛. Excepting gifts for others, I simply 诲辞苍鈥檛 buy new releases, period. I 诲辞苍鈥檛 pick up books for myself until they鈥檙e in paperback. If I do happen to read a hardback I like enough to keep around for multiple readings, I still wait until the paperback comes out.
If I truly must read something that鈥檚 brand new, I visit the library. I鈥檓 a very heavy user of our local library鈥檚 book reservation system. Yes, sometimes I 诲辞苍鈥檛 get hot new releases in the first month they鈥檙e out. However, I do get them eventually and, quite often, I get them faster than I expect (because other readers check them out for much shorter periods than expected). You can do the same thing with movies 鈥� sign up early to rent a new release from Netflix, for example.
I also swap frequently with my friends. If I do receive a book as a gift that I think a friend will like, I loan it out. Similarly, they鈥檒l loan their new releases to me. This way, a new release given to me as a gift is often like two or three of them, since I have friends with which I share interests and can trust in terms of swapping books. One鈥檚 social network, if filled with compatible, good people, can be a very valuable resource.
I learned to love exploring the archives. If I find an author I like, for example, it鈥檚 much cheaper to dig through his or her older books than it is to charge out and buy the new releases. Take Richard Russo, an author I discoverd a few years ago (and subsequently hooked my mother on). Rather than rushing out and buying myself his newest work in hardback, I used PaperBackSwap to read a multitude of his older novels. The cost for these older books was trivial, but I was still able to deeply and fully enjoy his writing without paying that 鈥渘ew鈥� premium. I explored Douglas Coupland in a very similar fashion.
When I finish a book (or a game, or a movie鈥�), I first turn to my own shelves. I 诲辞苍鈥檛 insist on finding the thing I want to read/play/listen to already on my shelf, but quite often I find it anyway. I鈥檒l spy a book that just speaks out to me, saying 鈥渞ead me鈥︹�� in its own special way. So I pick it up and I suddenly have free entertaiment that I鈥檓 deeply enjoying.
Some set of these techniques work no matter which form of the new you鈥檙e chasing, whether it鈥檚 restaurants or trading cards. Whatever it is, if you can seek out other avenues for your passion than the shiny new thing, you鈥檒l almost always receive a big thank you from your wallet.
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