Technology tends to have a remarkably short half-life. New innovations are made almost on a daily basis. So how do you protect yourself against the time decay of tech? Well, you focus on something else — taste.
You might think I mean taste figuratively. To an extent, I do — but the perfect example of what I mean by taste is quite literal.
Some of the oldest companies in the world revolve around food. Coca Cola, The Dole Company… there is something about taste that doesn’t change all that much. Certainly there are innovations in food production — new chemicals that enhance taste, new agricultural methods that improve crop yield — but the product never really changes. There isn’t a new version of a Coke every year, unlike an iPhone or a Google update. Things stay relatively stable.
We can see this in other industries as well. Not including financial companies (which can last a very long time, but are typically that way based on their ties to the government), other long lasting companies find themselves in cultural sectors, such as entertainment. While culture does change, the long-term trends can last quite a long time (as opposed to basic fads, or lord forbid fashion changes).
That’s not to say that technology companies aren’t worth investing into — the average lifespan of a tech company is more than enough to last its founder’s lifetime. But there might be something interesting in looking at more inherent patterns.
