Do you remember that it used to be the case that you did not know, for certain, what the time was.
It’s only since the introduction of the iPhone back in 2007 that everyone has known, to a second, what the time was.
The uniquely internet-ed-ly connected way that thing operated meant that everyone in their pocket had a to-the-second accurate timepiece always available. Before then, we used watches, or time on phones that may not have been network sync’d, so generally we all used to wander about being plus or minus 5 minutes out.
Another way to put this is that “the problem of knowing exactly what the time is” has been solved.
That problem was quite long-lived. But some aren’t. TomTom – once the darling of in-car satnav – launched that product in 2001, and just six years later the writing was on the wall for that whole business.
The trick, I would say, is that if you are going to throw in with an idea, you can’t have one exit strategy where everything woks. You have to have a “avoid my old life” survivorship strategy too.