When I was fifteen, my dad bough me my first guitar, a Tanglewood dreadnought style acoustic. Last year I brought it over to Poland so I could play it again. I’ve had it over half my life now, and it’s still going strong. It’s showing signs of age and breakdown but it will keep going and may well outlive me (even though it’s not really alive).

I think about my guitar and other long-lasting tech when I consider most modern technology. With my recent reading of Perennial Seller and the upcoming Apple event, there is a lot of buzz over upgrades and the debates over what device to get. I’m looking at upgrading my phone from an iPhone SE to probably the iPhone X(s?). I want a smaller phone but one that has the best internals so it will keep going for a while.

I don’t really need this upgrade, my iPhone SE still works really well, the iOS 12 beta has made it much faster and more responsive and is like a processor upgrade, and the battery still lasts a good amount of time (and could be upgraded). Despite these factors, a new iPhone is still probably the best idea.

My wife has my old iPhone 5s and its battery is not doing so well, in addition we have just become parents and I’d love her to be able to take live photos as well. I’m also worried that the security updates will eventual stop coming for the 5s.

To be far to Apple, their software updates do help their devices last much longer than the average phone company, and the proliferation of battery replacement recently has helped devices last longer, still I know for sure that even the latest iPhone won’t outlast me.

Last year I bought an old hassleblad 500cm, a medium format film camera. It’s from the year I was born and it’s going strong. I can bet it will still be going strong in 30 years time.