Even at the micro level we frustrate our innate contentment mechanism: the latest thing to catch my eye in this regard is a piece by James Surowiecki (of Wisdom of Crowds fame) in the New Yorker in which he points out that gadget makers continue to increase the number of features on devices, consumers continue to prefer gadgets
with more bells and whistles, but once
buyers turn into users the
greater «
wealth» (my term) only makes them unhappy.