On Value vs. Price in Cultural Markets

Price is immediate. Value is negotiated over time.

In cultural markets, this distinction becomes unstable. Works are priced before they are understood, and often understood only after pricing has reinforced perception.

The result is a feedback loop: Markets do not discover value. They construct it, then defend it.

This is why the most important variable is not price, but time. Time reveals whether value was intrinsic or merely coordinated belief.

The market rewards conviction early, and accuracy late. Few participants are structured to survive that gap.