> This isn't some emotional or fashionable thing, they're tools, so you'd have to assume they derive $1000 of value. If someone spends a lot of money on someth

> This isn't some emotional or fashionable thing, they're tools, so you'd have to assume they derive $1000 of value. If someone spends a lot of money on something but they don't derive commensurate value from that purchase, they will experience cognitive dissonance proportional to that mismatch. But ceasing or reversing such purchases are only some of the possibilities for resolving that dissonance. Another possibility is adjusting one's assessment of the value of that purchase. This can be subconscious and automatic, but it an also involve validation-seeking behaviors like reading positive/affirming product reviews. In this present era of AI hype, purchase-affirming material is very abundant! Articles, blog posts, interviews podcasts, HN posts.. there's lots to tell people that it's time to "get on board", to "invest in AI" both financially and professionally, etc. How much money people have to blow on experiments and toys probably makes a big difference, too. Obviously there are limits and caveats to this kind of distortion. But I think the reality here is a bit more complicated than one in which we can directly read the derived value from people's purchasing decisions.