The Heat Pump She Suddenly Saw on Every Street

A customer in Hennessey told me, two weeks after I installed a new heat pump in her house, that she could not believe how many heat pumps were going in around town. She said she saw them everywhere. She named six driveways within a mile of her house where a new outdoor unit was sitting in the gravel. I told her, kindly, that those units had been there for at least the last year. Most of them since before her install. What had changed was not the town. It was her. There is a name for this. The linguist Arnold Zwicky coined the phrase frequency illusion in 2005, and recorded the older nickname for it, the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. It has two parts. First, selective attention: once you notice a thing, your attention grows a hook for it and starts catching instances you used to walk right past. Second, confirmation bias: you remember the times you noticed, and you forget all the times you did not. It is the cognitive version of buying a red truck and then deciding the world is full of red trucks. The trucks were always there. You just did not see them as a category before. Now you do. She had spent six weeks reading about heat pumps, asking me questions about heat pumps, watching me install one, and then living in a house with one. Heat pumps were a category in her head now, and the category had a hook. Every outdoor unit she drove past snagged on it. Six snags in a week felt like a wave. I did not take the feeling away from her. She was right that heat pump installs have climbed over the last decade around here, and her count was about the right order of magnitude for what was actually out there. I just did not point out that the six units had not appeared in the last two weeks. The pattern she felt was real. It was not news about the town. Core line: "New knowledge does not change the town. It changes the looker." Give Us A Shout Thanks for tuning in to Hartzell's Heat & Air, HVAC in Kingfisher and central Oklahoma. From Kingfisher to coast-to-coast consulting, we design, install, and maintain smart, efficient systems that deliver year-round comfort. We're family-run and powered by 47+ years of experience. Whether it's AI-powered thermostats, geothermal systems, or classic tune-ups, we deliver upfront pricing, expert care, and warranties that back it all up. 🛠️ Book Online:Book Online🌐 www.hartzellsheatair.com📞 (405) 375-4822 🚛 Trane Comfort Specialist • Mitsubishi Diamond Dealer • ClimateMaster Elite🛡️ VIP Comfort Club • Remote Monitoring • Extended Warranties 📲 Follow us for tips, updates, and real-world installs:YouTube: @hartzellsheatair6003X: x.com/HartzellsHVACFacebook: facebook.com/hartzellsheatairLinkedIn: Dave Hartzell Built on trust. Backed by warranty. Designed for comfort.