Expiration dates

Food spoils. Buildings eventually change. And so do cultural phenomena. Game shows died with streaming. And it is time to lay the rest of the All-Star game for the NBA. Saturday Night Live has survived 50 years—an incredible run by any measure. Seinfeld still survives and is relevant even in the cell phone era.

We can’t expect the things we do to change the culture to last forever. This is good news, too. Dogmas, caste systems, the status quo, old tropes, false proxies…they all die, too.

A good idea isn’t enough to consider. You must also look at the possible lifecycle of the change you seek to make.