At this fraught, precarious time for our nation, many people are waiting for their leader to deliver some words of inspiration, encouragement, and hope for the future. Let’s hope Steve Jobs really nails it.

Not to cast aspersions at what is likely to be the most important tablet since Mt. Sinai, but even if this thing completely revolutionizes computing as we know it, the odds are good that the technology won’t trickle-down to us underclasses for awhile. This is good news for anyone that can afford the new toy, because it means that you hold off on buying the new Apple thing, while still retaining an audience of people to impress with it. And you should hold off.

It’s a widely held belief that one should never buy first generation Apple hardware, and there‘s some reasons for that, not all of them technical. Remember all those early adopters who got burned by the sudden iPhone price drop that happened mere months after its release?

I say: Ignore all that. You’re going to hear a lot of people tell you to hold off for at least a couple of months – a year if you can manage it – but I’m giving you permission to go for it. Sure, if you wait they might drop the price; and, of course, there’s all those inevitable hardware and software bugfixes that will be incorporated into later manufacturing runs, and the increase in available software that also comes with the passage of time.

None of that matters. What counts is showing your friends and co-workers that you’re doing well enough to spend unwisely. “Yeah, just happened to be walking past an Apple store, and I figured what the hell, you know?” And then you watch your friends, coworkers, and family-members try their best to keep their intense feelings of jealousy from being revealed by the expressions on their faces.

As fleeting as this sort of thing is, you shouldn’t let that stop you. This is your last chance to be cool, even briefly.

I mean, look at you.