What I learned from those is what you shared in your today's post. Putting money in things that will grow, even if it grows 1% instead of spending all my money on things that will depreciate and have to be rebought an year or so later.
This is what everyone should be doing with a significant portion of what they can. The draw of depreciating consumer value is strong, because there is so much effort put into pushing them into our lives. I don't think we have to go too extreme, but small changes often and it will have a big effect.