I’m a notoriously late adopter of technologies. It is not a conscious decision, and I don’t take any pride in it. I just do not have enough imagination to figure out ahead of time how much I will like things once I actually have them. E-mail is a good example. I couldn’t see how e-mail would be of much use to me when it first became popular. It wasn’t until my last year in graduate school that I got an e-mail account, and that was only because I liked a girl and she was on e-mail. I didn’t have a laptop until three years ago. We didn’t get Wi-Fi in the house until this year. The list goes on and on: an IPass for my car (just this year); an iPod (two years ago); Tivo (last year).
In every case, when I look back, I wish I had adopted sooner. I can only think of one technology I adopted too early: voice recognition software. Back in grad school, I had carpal tunnel problems from entering too much data, so I bought voice recognition software that would supposedly eliminate the need to type so much. No matter how much I trained it, it couldn’t figure out what I was saying. Somehow, when my wife would talk to it, the software understood every word.
As such, I need some advice from blog readers: what are some technologies I need the most that I’ve been slow to adopt?
We’ll send a signed copy of Freakonomics , a Freakonomics yo-yo, or a Freakonomics fact-a-day calendar to the suggestion I like best.
Addendum: The winners of the contest are named here.
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GPS. I’ve been slow to adopt, too, but now that I’ve seen it in action, I’ll have to have it.
Satellite radio. Ditto.
GPS. I’ve been slow to adopt, too, but now that I’ve seen it in action, I’ll have to have it.
Satellite radio. Ditto.
I am a late adopter, too – but one advance in service/technology that I am all over is Zappos.com and shoe shopping over the internet.
The whole “ship to your office with no shipping charges out or on the return” is just absolutely brilliant. If you have specific shoe tastes, hate shopping in real stores, are perpetually short on in free real life time or take a size shoe that isn’t something that is stocked in great variety in stores, then Zappos is going to seem like shoe manna from heaven to you.
The price guarantee is awesome, too.
I am a late adopter, too – but one advance in service/technology that I am all over is Zappos.com and shoe shopping over the internet.
The whole “ship to your office with no shipping charges out or on the return” is just absolutely brilliant. If you have specific shoe tastes, hate shopping in real stores, are perpetually short on in free real life time or take a size shoe that isn’t something that is stocked in great variety in stores, then Zappos is going to seem like shoe manna from heaven to you.
The price guarantee is awesome, too.
I tend to adopt quickly but find myself wishing I would have waited. However, one thing I could’ve live without would be my SmartPhone, the Motorola Q. There are a lot of options out there (Treo, Blackberry, iPhone, etc.) that combine a PDA and a phone but I have to say, having a detailed calendar and a telephone all in one, compact package, helps me make my meetings and not miss my calls. If you’re an e-mail addict like some of us, you can even check that, too.
I tend to adopt quickly but find myself wishing I would have waited. However, one thing I could’ve live without would be my SmartPhone, the Motorola Q. There are a lot of options out there (Treo, Blackberry, iPhone, etc.) that combine a PDA and a phone but I have to say, having a detailed calendar and a telephone all in one, compact package, helps me make my meetings and not miss my calls. If you’re an e-mail addict like some of us, you can even check that, too.
This isn’t new technology but I doubt many have one–and with your family you need it–the all-in-one washer/dryer:
http://www.lgwasherdryer.com/
Or better still, the oven that refrigerates so you can start the meal later in the day (even by internet).
http://www.tmio.com/
This isn’t new technology but I doubt many have one–and with your family you need it–the all-in-one washer/dryer:
http://www.lgwasherdryer.com/
Or better still, the oven that refrigerates so you can start the meal later in the day (even by internet).
http://www.tmio.com/