I am shopping for a new laptop backpack. There are some great options out there with great prices. I’m pretty sure I know what I need and that is the starting point for my shopping process. Then I see one with the USB charging port on the side with a little port where you can put a charging brick inside the bag, run the USB to it and then charge from outside the backpack. Pretty nifty. You don’t have to have the cord handing out an unzipped pocket or worse yet – not have the ability to charge your phone from your backpack at ALL!

So now, every backpack I look at I check to see if it has that feature. If not, then hard pass.

Except, I would never use that feature. I know I won’t because I purposely have pulled my charging brick out of my old laptop back because of weight and the fact I never (read that again NEVER) used the brick. I have always been either pretty good on battery and didn’t need an emergency charge, or I could find an outlet to tap into the main electrical vein. 

But for some reason, I am drawn to making sure that feature is in the next bag I have. 

And that “fear of not having a feature if I need it” (FONHAFIINI ) permeates a lot of decisions people make. 

Four-wheel drive in your car you only drive in downtown Jacksonville, FLA? Yeah… snow gets deep in February there. 

Souffle setting on that $1,000 stove? You bet – you french chef you.

That feature on the new incentive software that allows you to run programs using Bitcoin and the currency they have in Bladerunner? Gotta get you some of that!

Except you don’t. You will never use that stuff.

Don’t be seduced by features someone points out you MUST have. Most of the time it’s a feature that exists solely to get you to buy – to tap into that FONHAFIINI syndrome.

You might need it. But if you can’t think of a use case pretty quickly or a possible use case in the near (24 month) future you’re probably getting played. 

I know I fell for the heated seats option in my car – and I live in South Carolina. I don’t need heated seats. Or the heated steering wheel my wife has. 

What I need is a good car with a low repair record and good gas mileage. 

What do you NEED? What do you WANT? What are you being convinced you need that you didn’t want and can’t see being used? 

That’s not to say you shouldn’t listen and pay attention to something you’ve not used or seen before. Sometimes a novel way of approaching a problem can lead to huge payoffs. But I am saying that don’t let a feature check-sheet drive your decision. Think through your needs – not their features.

Take a step back and wait a little bit before committing to FONHAFIINI. 

Trust me. If it becomes something mission critical in the future. You can get it then.