The earliest reference on Wikipedia is 2011, but I was saying "Shiny Object Syndrome" and even specifically abbreviating it "SOS" by at least 2005.<p>I know that I first heard it from somewhere else, but I do not remember where. I'm pretty sure it was a TV show.<p>Does any one remember where it originated from?
This is just a rebranding of novelty bias to make it seem like a new idea
I call it Toddler Soccer Syndrome. Ball's over there? Let's all chase it. Oh, moved over here now? Everyone run the other way.
An aspect of this I find interesting is that previously effort was a reasonably good barrier to making something new. If a feature/library existed someone cared enough to put the work in to make it exist.<p>Now it’s just a question of tokens. The presentation/feature list is no sign of effort or caring. So we get limitless new shiny things to try and filter through
Pretty sure bringing up tokens immediately is itself an example of this.
It’s possibly a good thing in disguise. Maybe it will make software dev finally more inclined to focus on tested and true technologies rather than chasing trendy novelty stuff.<p>(Oh, who am I kidding, it’s AI that do tech decisions now and they choose whatever stuff that’s overrepresented in their training data, or just NIH stuff, which has inexplicably become a virtue, like measuring progress by lines of code spent has become. )
I wonder if this has any relevance at all to a bunch of new stuff that people on HN seem very obsessed over these days.
In boardgame communities, it’s called “Cult of the New”.
[dead]