I’m such a late early adapter. I adapt to new technology/trends very late compared to people around me, but that’s way before the rest of the market. This is because I’m fortunate enough to always hang out with very early adapters.
Was lucky enough to have a pc at home before everybody did, because of my family. To have an internet connection before my classmates had - back from the time of mIRC. I remember staying up all night on the chat, while still in elementary school. It was such an amazing notion, to speak with people from different countries right at home.
And when I went to Brown University, I signed up to facebook, even though I was reluctant to do so (”me? to post my picture on the internet? no way”) - but I still ended up joining before most of the world.
So I feel that I’m a very late adapter, but that early and late it is all relative to your environment. Therefore even though I’m late compared to the people surrounding me, I tend to be way ahead of the rest of the market.
Do you feel that way too? I’ve always wondered how unique my position is as a late-early adapter. Are most people indeed either early adapters - “yea I’ll try that even though/because no one has”, or late adapters - “I’ll only do it after it has been accepted as mainstream”.
Something funny I noticed recently in a social experiment some students were conducting, in form of a Facebook group. The discussion board there was very active, and I wondered what do all these people have in common to be having such a lively discussion board.
The topic was “stereotype the person above you“. During their experiment, there was a new post every few seconds. I wanted to post as well, but every time I refreshed the page there were several new comments already. (meaning it wouldn’t be about the person above me, but about 4 persons up).
I kept thinking, what made all these people, and myself, want to know what is the stereotype people might have of them?
“Survivor” - You may have been surprised to learn that I am up to date with this television series. Whoever knows me is very well aware of the fact that I rarely watch TV.
Incidentally they’ve been posting the “Survivor” episodes on their website. (Actually the only episode I’ve watched in a TV set was the last one). But don’t think I’m trying to encourage TV stations to broadcast online by watching them when they do so. There’s a more compelling reason: In general I have an affinity to these type of “survival” shows, you should know that I’m an avid “Lost” fan as well.
Part of the reason that I’m so interested in this genre, is that in the past I have had a survival experience myself. Have you had one as well?
While traveling in Crete, we were hiking through a gorge. We had the impression that it would be a short walk of an hour and a half or so, therefore left very late in the day with hardly any supplies. Needless to say, that was not the case and we had to spend the night in the cold (it was winter time, and we were wet after having passed through the stream numerous times).
I will not elaborate on this experience itself, only about some of my impressions. That night I understood how people have worshiped the celestial bodies. Beforehand I couldn’t comprehend how it would be possible to seriously acknowledge them as saviors. But now I do.
It rained several times during the night; but when the moon was out, we knew we were safe - there were no clouds and it wasn’t as dark, as we had some moon light. There are no words in which I can express the joy of seeing a glimpse of light in the morning, knowing that the sun will soon be out.
One of the other main things I learned that night was about myself. How I handle intense situations. This is partially why I am intrigued with the portrayal of other individuals or groups who deal with various types of survival experiences.
Na’ama Keisari just won the Israeli “survivor” show. I think she really deserved it. There are many reasons why I’m such a supporter of hers. One of the main ones is that she won while still maintaining a good relationship with the candidates she has sent home earlier in the series. She was very strategic and yet did not cause such a strong antagonism towards her as some other candidates have.
Additionally, though she is not as physically strong as some of the others, she is very strong-minded; and has put so much effort into the experience. It seems that it has been much more physically challenging to her than to the other finalists. And yet, she “survived” it all the same.
Herzl is an example to a true visionary. He envisioned the state of Israel. As I see it, Israel today is not that far from what he had in mind.
Imagination is a key first step for doing great things.
It’s surely risky, but the reward is in the experience itself. Walter Bruan, who was my CEO when I was a trader, once said (in a video to new traders) “you know how much you love it now when you’re not doing that well, imagine how much you’ll love it when you’ll be making $”. That sentence stuck with me. There is so much to say about the path. You have to love what you’re doing and be passionate about it.
And as a fridge magnet I have says: Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go… (T.S. Eliot)
Herzl may not have truly believed that we would achieve so much. But he tried. And if he were to see Israel today, I’m sure he would have been proud.
Why do we dislike online ads more than TV commercials?
Mainly because we tend to act together - people like to behave as a group. I would say “herd” but that might sound a bit harsh. As Aristotle has put it, a man is by nature a social animal.
People also don’t like it when they get unsolicited calls (I hang up as soon as I realize that it is not personal) more than they like advertisements they encounter online. We fast forward commercials on TV if we can, or just use that time to take a break from what we are watching. But the negative feeling towards these TV commercials is not as strong as it is on the internet. Some commercials we might even like, and show our friends - “hey you have to see this one, it is so cool” style.
I believe it’s because we see every advertisement when we are alone surfing the web. Just like unsolicited phone calls. So it is not personal on the one hand, and we don’t feel like we’re part of a crowd on the other hand.
Yesterday I spent more time on ynet than on nrg (two major Israeli news websites). That rarely happens to me, usually the opposite is the case. I usually explore nrg, and when I’ve exhausted the site I briefly check the other one out. It’s just that this time it was ynet which got more of my attention.
nrg has changed the design of its homepage. I don’t like it. Not because it’s no good. I can’t even tell you if it is or isn’t. I’m just used to the old one. That’s it. And that’s a whole whole lot. I remember how red it was. You see - I had sentiments to the old design.
People are conservative. They don’t like big changes. They should have left the option to maintain it the old way too. Leave the world as it is and people will still be happy (or will still be unhappy… depends who). Feed the market with a spoon; it matures slowly. Social networks for instance were around much before 2007, but it was not their time yet.
Changes have to come when the market is ready. I don’t mean that specifically this one is a no no, but I also didn’t want to let it pass without some kind of mourning.
The following is a short animation by Bruno Bozzetto - I first watched it back in 2001.
I used to watch it every time I was feeling down; it did a pretty good job in raising my spirits. I’ve seen it dozens of times.
You know how sometimes it seems like whenever you are trying to do good, everything seems to be working against you?
But for some (strange?) reason you (I) always seem to keep doing it. Doing what we think is the right thing to do. That’s why I have a lot of faith in people. I actually think it is innate in most (some?) of us. I’m such a Kantian.
It was Douglas Adams who said: “Technology is a word that describes something that doesn’t work yet.” (Thanks Oded for the quote, I was looking for it). I heard this recently, and I think it is very insightful.
There’s a difference between “technology” and a “product”. The difference being, that technology is the stage when it still just belongs to the “early adapters” realm. When it is already widely accepted you don’t call it “technology”. Instead of calling it “this new technology which let’s you do ex-why-zeee…” you call it “a fax machine”, “a phone”, “a stereo”, “a pencil”, “facebook”, or just “whatchamacallit“.
I love that word - “whatchamacallit“, when I was young my parents would use it every so often (as part of the Hebrish we spoke at home); I used to try and make believe that it means something about purchasing a Watch in the Makkolet (a local supermarket in Hebrew). Those were the days.
I didn’t even know it had a “correct” spelling. But apparently it does. What’d you know.
Wishing all you entrepreneurs that your products won’t be a “technology” but a “whatchamacallit”.
Okay then, now that everybody is using facebook, I can let you in on a little secret. The facebook firefox toolbar. It can get annoying after a while, but it is a fun tool nonetheless once you start using it.
It allows you to see all your friends’ recent facebook activity, and your own data, instantly. It shows up as pop-ups - similar to Outlook’s emails, but… without the option to close these notifications. Oops. It can get especially annoying after a while, but you might really like it too. It’s also nice to see the stats you get on the toolbar - friend requests, events, groups, pokes…
And thanks to Roy who let me in on it. There are currently only ~40k active users on this application (which btw was developed by facebook) according to Adonomics. Which isn’t much I would say. I guess nobody has heard of it, and it’s not a viral application. Okay then now it all makes sense.
Check it out then.
P.S. Did you notice that I started linking to things inside the post? Hurray for me. (Yes yes I know, I’ve done it a gazillion times in the past. But not here.)
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Facebook, Marketing, Technology, Web Apps | Tagged: Early Adapters, Facebook, Late Adapters, Late-Early Adapters, Mainstream, mIRC, New Technology, PC, Technology | 
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