Fiddling With Value.


A woman and a friend sit in a coffee shop at a railway station. They're engrossed in their iPhones and serving staff later report that they also kept a close eye on their computers.

So much so that they didn't notice that the other package beneath their table had gone missing. All very 21st century. A busy environment, attention in one tech-related direction, thieves in the other. Nothing to write home about, except that the package contained a bow worth £62,000.

What does that tell us about our concept of value today? The social value of the phone connection and the related value of the computer seem to take precedence over the greater financial value of the package. The social tools were more important than the tools of her trade - for yes she was a violinist.

I don't know if that's a new phenomenon, but it's a timely reminder that value is constantly shifting depending on context and mood.

And yes the violin went missing too. It's apparently worth £1.2 million, but when you get into figures like that, you perhaps lose sight of what was really going on.

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