Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Early adopters get to shout: 'The emperor's not wearing clothes!'

I love early adopters! They help save my time and energy. Google+ has arrived with the same fake 'invitation' business that makes you feel like you are amongst the privileged few to have access to some path-breaking technology. We think of ourselves as 'visionaries' and 'early adopters'. Just a more marketing friendly name for Guinea Pigs. This seemingly irrational behaviour of standing in long queues to buy a product that will not only halve in price in a couple of months, but also have significantly fewer defects (à la iphone), apparently has a reasons.
Studies show that people do this because of what it conveys about them to others. Not sure why studies were required to figure this out, but there you have it.
But again, I am not complaining too much, since these people saved me from the likes of Google Wave. I am just quietly smiling :P
The one place I am an early adopter in, are the movies. I love to watch most movies before somebody else spoils it for me with a review. But there are some movies where I do wait for a review.
Other than this, I am happy for someone else to see the proverbial emperor in the nude and tell me about it, so that I can give the spectacle a miss.

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