The code is: "earn money/eyeballs". Like fashion, it is confined to variations on a theme which only shifts ever so gradually that you need to zoom out to a gen

The code is: "earn money/eyeballs". Like fashion, it is confined to variations on a theme which only shifts ever so gradually that you need to zoom out to a generation or two to witness any significant change. I couldn't tell you what changed in fashion in the last decade, but I can show you a 90ies look, an 80ies outfit, one from the seventies, something from the 1770s, etc. People want the same but different, and this imposes exactly such invisible 'codes' as you point out.