Some people are innovators, some are acceptors . . . I’m an early adopter. I tend to let kinks get worked out of new products before I acquire them, but I certainly wasn’t the last person to realize that I needed a cell phone or a wireless router.
I don’t have an iphone or a blackberry, because I’m connected enough as it is, but I do now have this blog, and a Twitter account, and I’m trying to get a grip on Digg and Reddit and Sphinn. They seem to be more necessary for my line of work.
Most of my friends aren’t even aware of this networking driven sub-culture that could potentially dominate communications over the next twenty years. They still use IE, and manipulating their ipod is the leading edge of their technological expertise (which isn’t necessarily bad). I think there’s a good chance that the skill of adopting technologies sooner than later is becoming mandatory for success in many ways.
Before computers and swift technology advancement you didn’t really need to pick up on things quite as fast. It would be decades before a more efficient way of doing something came to market, so you could learn how to apply your skill and you never really had to worry about learning that new skillset because you would be retired or in management before the innovation changed your process.
Now, improvements are occurring so fast that adopting and keeping current with new efficiencies in your field is critical to not falling behind. This is still a relatively new phenomenon, but it’s one that is only going to become more exaggerated over time. So help your friends out, tell them about the tech tools they could benefit from, get them to join LinkedIn, or set them up with a Blog. They’ll thank you for it later!
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Good thoughts, Tim. I’m also more of the early adopter rather than the innovator… though certainly I think individual roles are relative to the context of the buying situation. Personally I’m an early adopter for most things internet-related, but I’m either “late majority” or “laggard” for other things like blue jeans. Just my style (or lack thereof).
With the internet – and pop / consumer media, social media, etc. – so many things have such short product life cycles. They live and die very quickly, and many indeed have a lot of hype and never come to fruition. Its especially true with social media online. To me it seems way too time consuming to be an innovator here since so many of the “next cool things” never pan out. As an early adopter you can sort of wait a bit and have a better idea of what sticks, and what’s worth your time.
The ironic thing here is that I think its even possible to both two different roles for the same product category, in some rare cases. I had an MP3 player (Diamond Rio) 1999 before most people even knew what an MP3 was. The first iPod didn’t come out until late 2001. That said, since they shut down Napster (RIP) I haven’t really been into MP3s as much and so I haven’t used a “digital music player” since back when I had my 128MB one. I’m considering buying one now which would put me on the verge of late majority or laggard, whereas I was also an innovator in this same category.
Okay enough of the personal stories…
On another note, I see someone is doing a little personal brand optimization?
One might also consider the Tim Staines bio, no?
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