I teach this as part of an internal developer class; one important thing to note is that it applies to certain classes of non-perishable items. Not the books th

I teach this as part of an internal developer class; one important thing to note is that it applies to certain classes of non-perishable items. Not the books themselves, but the ideas the books contain. We talk about how things like the presentation framework du jour (e.g., many Javascript frameworks) change rapidly, while tech deeper in the stack turns over less frequently (middleware, operating systems, etc.) And we ask about why some tech survives. The lesson here is that things that last have developed certain adaptations to make them last. It's always worth studying why some oft-repudiated or outdated tech won't die; it is almost always because it possesses some key attribute present that is essential. If you're proposing a new framework, or promoting a new idea, it is essential you understand why these crufty old incumbents are still around, and see whether your new framework or idea embodies those old adaptations. I've learned a lot about how flashy surface features (which compete well against new tech at the surface level) can be inferior to tech that embodies what the incumbents did well.