CB Radios, Nostalgia and the Inability to Adapt - Cryptocurrencies are Inevitable

Its been at least 4 years now since this little incident happened. I'm standing inside this local guitar shop, not too far away from my home talking to the owner. An old school kind of guy. He very busy telling me all the reasons why he refuses to sell his guitars online on ebay, reverb or anywhere else as I'm suggesting. In other words, he believes in the traditional way of selling musical instruments. You come into the store, you strum the strings, and you bust out the wallet.


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I'm sure that anyone who is participating of any kind of online ecosystem would be able to see the blatant flaw in his way of thinking. Desiring something to be true does not make it so. And, as much as I can see the appeal, the almost romantic element of the "traditional guitar store"- I'm also not going to cross my arms in resistance and rejection of the current shopping habits and trends.

In other words, the newer generations, the ones who are getting the new jobs, the ones who are joining the economy sort of speak, have never lived in a world that does not shop online. That realization to me is a bit crazy. I'm old enough to remember the resistance, the rejection to the idea of shopping online. I'm also old enough to remember a world where online shopping did not exist.

In that sense, I may be a little lucky. Because I was a teenager when the shift started to happen and not a man set in his ways, unwilling to change. Don't get me wrong, I get the rejection of online shopping, specially when it comes to musical instruments. I mean, how can I hear, how can I effectively test the quality of a guitar, If I'm not the one strumming it? - But, and this is a bit BUT - I'm also not stubborn enough to not admit that the new generations see this step, this "organic" element of purchasing as completely unnecessary.

"If I don't like it, I'll just return it.. no big deal"

Internal Thoughts
_{Yes of course, that's how it works. You can buy anything from Amazon, use it for weeks, and return it if the button felt weird when you pressed it for the ten thousand time. Yes, I remember now how this works.}

Back to my story...

So, as I was explaining to my friend with more gray hairs on his head than me, how he is effectively missing out on sales, this older gentleman walks into the store. He's holding a couple of small briefcases, he seems flustered and full of anxiety. He opens up one of the cases, shows the shop owner and me these wireless transmitters and says:

"I need some cash, I need to sell these, would you guys be interested?"

I take a look at the units and discover they are pretty old, still functional, still legal (that's a post on its own), but very old indeed. The owner of the shop tells this would be desperate seller, he does not normally deal with electronic gear, that guitars are his thing and nothing more.

The face on the old timer changes from a smile to a frown, and proceeds to tell us he's lost it all, his business, his car and yes... even his wife. Maybe, because I'm a little too curious about these things, and maybe because I was being a big innapropriate I asked him what his business was about. Without missing a beat, he tells me he's been fixing car radios for 40 years, "40 freaking years" to quote the man.

I had to ask for clarification, of course, I was not sure what kind of radios he meant. He explained how when he started, when the business was booming he fixed all the CB radios in the area. It was then that his frown, his frustration, his defeat sort of speak dawned on me ask I asked myself - Who uses CB radios anymore?

As if he had heard my mind posing the question he continued his story. He told me how the business had slowed down over the years as more and more truckers would use cell phones and abandon the idea of using CB radios for their trucks. Three months prior to the visit to the store he had fixed the last one, and not a single customer had walked through the door again. This lead to him defaulting on loans, not paying the rent, wife issues, you name it.

The owner of the store refused to buy the units, but I did. Honestly, I overpaid a bit, but I felt sorry for the guy and felt like even if I sold them for the same amount I bought him for, at least I gave him enough to pay for his cellphone bill and few meals.

I left the store soon after, my mind completely filled with thoughts about the events transpired. It's not that it was not obvious before, but it just became that much more obvious to me right there and then: The speed of technology, the need for quick adaptability, the process of denial, the inevitable changes that will always come.

You might be thinking to yourself - Why is this relevant? Why should you care? - Mainly, because I see this whole cryptocurrency as something that drives on a parallel lane. It's not the same story, but it carries the same dynamics. There will be those who will refuse to adapt, who will continue to fix their CB radios until they are operating in a field that does not use them, there will be those who will attempt to dip their toes, but not understand a thing, and those who will jump the gun, who will learn the tech, the changes, the elements needed for adaptation and take over from those who hesitated.

I constantly think about this, because I know there is no way of turning back the clock, of going back to CB radios. Exactly like there is absolutely no way of stopping cryptocurrencies, or internet 2.0 as many call it.

Stay informed, stay educated my friends...

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