The Psychology of Batteries
I was the co-founder of a start-up not too long ago. As with anyone who is very serious about starting a company, I wanted to change the world. At first it was wind energy, but it turns out that infrastructure projects take quite a bit of capital and influence. Then it was mobile power generation, and eventually mobile energy storage. Along the way, we discovered a very interesting thing about the psychology of battery storage.
In my research, I kept coming back to the question: "Why do we want better battery life?" I could only answer that with another question: "What is it about human nature that drives us to desire more?" We never have enough, whether it's love, money, shelter, food, etc. We're addicted to the things we own. That aspect of human nature also makes us one of the most adaptable, too. Some call it greed, but it can be much more than that at times.
Sometimes, I like to think that it's a survival instinct. It's in our history of self-preservation. We conquer land and peoples in order to protect ourselves. We horde money in order to fend off all likelihood of poverty. Again, I'm not saying this is always true, but it certainly is true to some degree, consciously or subconsciously. Like it or not, we are often controlled by our history (genes, influences, and all that).
The same concept comes around for better battery life. We buy the biggest battery that we can afford, or are at least willing to carry around without looking ridiculous. Why? Self-preservation. We're so connected to our mobile devices that being without a phone for one night might actually kill us, and so we horde that oh-so-sweet, electrical nectar.