It's easy to come up with nostalgic jokes like "Do you suppose Dr. Shrinker decided to invent a Shrink Ray because of his name?" (Tackle THAT one, Freakonomics!) But I like to think about what internalized lessons we got from shows like that. Consider: Dr. Shrinker shrunk 3 people, then spent all his time trying to catch them, and inventing some amazing stuff along the way, because HE WANTED TO PROVE THE RAY WORKED. But if you were a 70s era millionaire in the market for a shrink ray, wouldn't you be like "ok, I see these 3 tiny people, but I'd still like to see the ray shrink something before I hand you a million bucks"? So, as kids we were taught that proof of concept is enough, and actually seeing the thing work in real life is entirely unnecessary before investing 6 or 7 figures. Hence: Theranos, Tesla, Juicero, most app culture, 90% of electronics, our economy, Trickle Down economics, Republicanism, austerity, the Keto diet, The Rise of Skywalker, basically 90% of our lives now