GENIUS

A long time ago in a land far, far away I attended college. I studied marketing and managed to pick up a few things along the way. In several classes we discussed different types of consumers. There are of course specific names and attributes for each type and most of this eludes me at the moment but I'll fill you in on what I remember and how it relates to me. First of all you have the people who buy things because they always want to be on the cutting edge. It almost doesn't matter what it is, as long as it is the next greatest thing. They will sacrifice paying high prices in order to be one of the first to have a new item for sale. On the opposite end of that spectrum you have people who always have and always will be satisfied with how things used to be. They don't need any of the new stuff and certainly will not be paying money for this stuff. For example, do you know anyone who just refuses to purchase a computer? Or who has a computer but will not connect it to the internet? I'm sure you do. They're probably older than you. And that's just how it's going to be. No need in attempting to change their minds. Then you have several areas between these two extremes. Probably the most common is the person who likes new and innovative things but doesn't want to take the risk or pay the money to be the first to own. After several months or maybe several years (depending of the product) this person is totally on board, but waits until all the kinks are worked out and the price finds its equilibrium. This is the person I would like to be and should be, but I somehow always find myself a step or two behind this person. You will see as I tell you about the genius I spoke of in the subject line.

A few months ago I finally got DVR. My justification for not having it before was that I didn't want to pay the extra $5 or $10 a month. Then I got to thinking about all the things I waste $5 or $10 on every month and decided it was time. It has literally revolutionized my entire life. I can now watch hour long shows in around 40 minutes. If there is a band I want to see on Kimmel but I have to get up really early I just record it and watch it the next day. Say there is a certain show I like to keep up with. I set a series recording, forget about it, and then find new shows on my DVR all the time. It seriously may be the single greatest invention of my lifetime ... so far.

And yesterday I finally broke down and signed up for Netflix. The first disc of the first season of The Office should be arriving at my house sometime this afternoon. Once I'm caught up on that show I think I'm on to 24 and then The Sopranos and then I'm not sure what. Who cares. It will show up at my house and I'll watch it. Why was I so skeptical of the Netflix until now? Actually I was skeptical because I used to have a roomate that had Netflix and we had the same 3 movies for 6 months. Not such a great value when you do it that way. But I am committed to getting value out it and entertaining myself with hours upon hours of past television excitement.