noun
a bias (especially having to do with the 4 Systems Thinking Versions or "waves") in which, having heard (but often not deeply explored or understood) about ST version 4.0 (or any future version) the response is to immediately think of the next "best thing" or the individual's preferred "thing" in systems thinking as the n+1 version.
For example:
You don't need to spend much time with the systems thinking community to predict what suggestion will come immediately following a statement such as, "we are in version 4.0." Even before detailing what the version is, numerous members of the community will be advocating version 5.0. Many will have strong opinions about which fiefdom constitutes this next version. And, as soon as this has been suggested, we'll be onto discussing what version 6.0 is, leading a few minutes later to version 7.0—the Sustiano-Anthrochakrapocene-version?—and so on.
It is wonderful to be part of such a progressive, exciting, and creative community, but the purpose of the waves/versions is not to hock the next best thing, but to identify patterns and lay foundations that yield or explain paradigm shifts in the historical record. Let's learn from the insights of software versioning and avoid calling everything new a new version. Resist the temptation to suffer from the local myopia that comes with the newest shiny object. As it stands now, ST v4.0 is being debated, but there is a strong leaning from influencers in the field (notably Midgley and Cabrera) toward it being a new version based on universality, CAS, and cognition.