Good Books: (via Emergic) Adam Greenfield's book, Everyware is about the dawning age of ubiquitous computing.
Here is the book's description:
Ubiquitous computing--almost imperceptible, but everywhere around us--is rapidly becoming a reality. How will it change us? How can we shape its emergence?
Smart buildings, smart furniture, smart clothing... even smart bathtubs. networked street signs and self-describing soda cans. Gestural interfaces like those seen in Minority Report. The RFID tags now embedded in everything from credit cards to the family pet.
All of these are facets of the ubiquitous computing author Adam Greenfield calls "everyware." In a series of brief, thoughtful meditations, Greenfield explains how everyware is already reshaping our lives, transforming our understanding of the cities we live in, the communities we belong to--and the way we see ourselves.
Here is an excerpt (via A List Apart):
Everyware is an attempt to describe the form computing will take in the next few years. Specifically, it’s about a vision of processing power so distributed throughout the environment that computers per se effectively disappear. It’s about the enormous consequences this disappearance has for the kinds of tasks computers are applied to, for the way we use them, and for what we understand them to be.
Although aspects of this vision have been called a variety of names -- ubiquitous computing, pervasive computing, physical computing, tangible media, and so on. I think of each as a facet of one coherent paradigm of interaction that I call everyware.
In everyware, all the information we now look to our phones or Web browsers to provide becomes accessible from just about anywhere, at any time, and is delivered in a manner appropriate to our location and context.
In everyware, the garment, the room and the street become sites of processing and mediation. Household objects from shower stalls to coffee pots are reimagined as places where facts about the world can be gathered, considered, and acted upon. And all the familiar rituals of daily life, things as fundamental as the way we wake up in the morning, get to work, or shop for our groceries, are remade as an intricate dance of information about ourselves, the state of the external world, and the options available to us at any given moment.
In all of these scenarios, there are powerful informatics underlying the apparent simplicity of the experience, but they never breach the surface of awareness: things just work.
Everyware is an interesting book + provides a preview of what's coming + gives you an interesting perspective of the emerging new world of convenience (s).
Friday, August 10, 2007
Paintings For Now
Peter Schjeldahl writes about Neo Rauch + his complex compositions and persuasive visual poetry on canvas @ http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/artworld/2007/06/04/070604craw_artworld_schjeldahl
Revisiting The Rihga Hotel
Chaim Even-Zohar writes about a diamond that was submitted by a New York sightholder to New York's GIA lab + the grading incident (s) + the management practice (s) + behind the scene events + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp?TextSearch=&KeyMatch=0&id=25451
Science Or Empiricism?
2007: Gemological competence requires more than reading textbooks, and the writer is right. I can imagine what was it like in the 1940s and 1950s. Despite the technological advances in gem identification, we still make mistakes. Again, he states that human senses are not always capable of analyzing their observations. Absolutely true. Here is what he has to say.
(via The Journal of Gemmology, No.1, Vol.1, January 1947) Norman A Harper writes:
Informed experience is a faculty of considerable value in any walk of life and knowledge gained by experience remains more firmly embedded in the minds of most people, than does knowledge culled from books or acquired at lectures.
Unfortunately, the human senses are not always capable of analyzing their observations, with the result that experience is frequently ill-informed, and thus of little value.
For countless centuries men experienced the diurnal journey of the sun round the world, and having a prejudice in favor of a geocentric universe, never suspected that in reality the roles were reversed, it being the earth which was the wanderer. By means of the scientific method, the measuring, analyzing and indexing of experienced observation, it was possible, however, to arrive eventually at this now almost universally known truth.
In every branch of knowledge the scientific method has proved its indispensability, and scientific instruments which measure and analyze human observations have become so numerous that a book of some three hundred pages is required to describe briefly the forms and uses of the more important of them.
There is still, however, a remarkable disinclination or reluctance among many to use such instruments, or rather to acquire the technique enabling them to be used. This may be due to a mistaken idea that these instruments require a technique that can only be achieve by long and painful practice and study. If this is so, it had better now be stated that while such study is necessary to grasp thoroughly the scientific principles underlying the use, say, of the telescope, much valuable and accurate knowledge can be gained by anyone, completely unversed in the science of optics, who knows which end to place next to the eye.
Few advances in knowledge have had such beneficent effects upon humanity as those associated with medical science, and few sciences can equal it in the number of the instruments to which its practitioners have recourse. The instruments of physics, of optics, of chemistry, of electricity—to all these the physician turns for aid.
It is hard to imagine a doctor without a thermometer, a stethoscope, and a hypodermic syringe, yet it is possible for him purely by experience and the use of his hands to tell whether or not a patient is feverish, or by his unaided ear to hear the rhonchi or rales which mark successive stages of bronchitis; it is also possible for him to introduce drugs into the body without hypodermic syringe, but who will deny that the use of such instruments makes these operations so much accurate and certain, besides their having other uses and a much wider application.
What, one may ask, is the object of this long preamble? The answer is contained in another question. Does the jewelry trade make sufficient use, in the hands of its numerous practitioners, of the scientific instruments which are available for the determination of the nature of the materials in which it deals?
The writer has within the past few weeks encountered three pieces of jewelry in which there were green stones which experience told him were emeralds, and not only his own experience, but the experience of three other jewelers of no mean capabilities, to whom they were shown. By the use of scientific methods and scientific instruments, however, these stones were proved to be extremely good imitations. As they were mounted in association with diamonds of considerable value, they might have escaped suspicion had not three very simple scientific tests been utilized to determine their true nature. Needless to say, the results of the investigations were a grave disappointment to their owners, who had vigorously asserted their genuineness.
In such cases the empirical method is generally employed, with the result that the truth is never discovered.
There are few trades where such mistakes can be more costly and few trades where accurate diagnosis is so often necessary. Every purchase from the public (and sometimes even from the trade) and every valuation, for whatever purpose, pre-supposes an exact knowledge on the part of the buyer or appraiser of the true nature of the constituent materials of the object to be bought or valued. Yet, in spite of the growing number of competent gemologists, a census of the jewelry establishments in which a bottle of dilute nitric acid and a smooth faced file were the only instruments available (and in a few enlightened cases, one Chelsea color filter), might engage a large number of enumerators.
In such establishments it is not possible to differentiate between unmarked platinum and unmarked white gold, or, for that matter, between either of those metals and stainless steel, and even an approximation of the quality of unmarked yellow gold would be with difficulty arrived at.
But when it comes to the determination of gemstones, the difficulties which beset such establishments would cause shivers of apprehension in a gemologist.
Of course, jewelers in that position can always say that it is possible to ‘play safe’, ‘when in doubt, don’t buy’, or ‘sell?’, ‘when not sure, allow nothing for the colored stone’, ‘buy it as 9 carat (or even when is obvious better than that….15 carat). But surely that is unethical and dishonest. What would be thought of a doctor who said ‘I can’t be sure whether it is colic or appendicitis, so we had better operate?’
A knowledge of gemology and the purchase of a little equipment would resolve most, if not all these doubts. In the case of precious metals, the expenditure of a few shillings and an hour of time with Selwyn’s ‘Retail Jeweler’s Handbook’ are all that is necessary to banish them for ever. Precious stones require a little more attention, but the possession of a few scientific instruments and an easily acquired knowledge of the technique of their use constitutes all that is necessary to transform an empiricist into a scientist, or one who guesses into one who knows.
The cost of these instruments might deter the individual, as it is in the region of thirty to forty pounds, but it should not, under any circumstances, deter a business, or an individual if he happens to be the proprietor of a small business, as this equipment will in a few years pay handsome dividends if used with knowledge and imagination. In any case, the increased confidence to be gained from their use will manifest itself inevitably in more and more successful sales talk.
‘I don’t want to turn my showrooms into a laboratory’ is a remark occasionally heard, but a consultation in Harley Street will be conducted in the atmosphere of a cultured 18th century salon, with gastroscopes, cystoscopes, and even such a pleasant instrument as the microscope, kept well in the background. No one doubts their existence and possible proximity, however, and the certainty that the consultant will take every advantage in diagnosis they offer, makes his advice invaluable as compared with the advice of the greatest physician of medieval times.
What equipment will benefit the jeweler? Here is a list of instruments in the order in which they should be purchased, in the opinion of the writer:
- The refractometer (Tully, Herbert Smith, or Rayner)
- Heavy liquids (Bromoform, methylene iodide, clerici solution)
- Petrological microscope
- The dichroscope
- The spectroscope
The method of their use is fully explained in textbooks written specially for the jeweler, but the first essential is a competent knowledge of gemology.
(via The Journal of Gemmology, No.1, Vol.1, January 1947) Norman A Harper writes:
Informed experience is a faculty of considerable value in any walk of life and knowledge gained by experience remains more firmly embedded in the minds of most people, than does knowledge culled from books or acquired at lectures.
Unfortunately, the human senses are not always capable of analyzing their observations, with the result that experience is frequently ill-informed, and thus of little value.
For countless centuries men experienced the diurnal journey of the sun round the world, and having a prejudice in favor of a geocentric universe, never suspected that in reality the roles were reversed, it being the earth which was the wanderer. By means of the scientific method, the measuring, analyzing and indexing of experienced observation, it was possible, however, to arrive eventually at this now almost universally known truth.
In every branch of knowledge the scientific method has proved its indispensability, and scientific instruments which measure and analyze human observations have become so numerous that a book of some three hundred pages is required to describe briefly the forms and uses of the more important of them.
There is still, however, a remarkable disinclination or reluctance among many to use such instruments, or rather to acquire the technique enabling them to be used. This may be due to a mistaken idea that these instruments require a technique that can only be achieve by long and painful practice and study. If this is so, it had better now be stated that while such study is necessary to grasp thoroughly the scientific principles underlying the use, say, of the telescope, much valuable and accurate knowledge can be gained by anyone, completely unversed in the science of optics, who knows which end to place next to the eye.
Few advances in knowledge have had such beneficent effects upon humanity as those associated with medical science, and few sciences can equal it in the number of the instruments to which its practitioners have recourse. The instruments of physics, of optics, of chemistry, of electricity—to all these the physician turns for aid.
It is hard to imagine a doctor without a thermometer, a stethoscope, and a hypodermic syringe, yet it is possible for him purely by experience and the use of his hands to tell whether or not a patient is feverish, or by his unaided ear to hear the rhonchi or rales which mark successive stages of bronchitis; it is also possible for him to introduce drugs into the body without hypodermic syringe, but who will deny that the use of such instruments makes these operations so much accurate and certain, besides their having other uses and a much wider application.
What, one may ask, is the object of this long preamble? The answer is contained in another question. Does the jewelry trade make sufficient use, in the hands of its numerous practitioners, of the scientific instruments which are available for the determination of the nature of the materials in which it deals?
The writer has within the past few weeks encountered three pieces of jewelry in which there were green stones which experience told him were emeralds, and not only his own experience, but the experience of three other jewelers of no mean capabilities, to whom they were shown. By the use of scientific methods and scientific instruments, however, these stones were proved to be extremely good imitations. As they were mounted in association with diamonds of considerable value, they might have escaped suspicion had not three very simple scientific tests been utilized to determine their true nature. Needless to say, the results of the investigations were a grave disappointment to their owners, who had vigorously asserted their genuineness.
In such cases the empirical method is generally employed, with the result that the truth is never discovered.
There are few trades where such mistakes can be more costly and few trades where accurate diagnosis is so often necessary. Every purchase from the public (and sometimes even from the trade) and every valuation, for whatever purpose, pre-supposes an exact knowledge on the part of the buyer or appraiser of the true nature of the constituent materials of the object to be bought or valued. Yet, in spite of the growing number of competent gemologists, a census of the jewelry establishments in which a bottle of dilute nitric acid and a smooth faced file were the only instruments available (and in a few enlightened cases, one Chelsea color filter), might engage a large number of enumerators.
In such establishments it is not possible to differentiate between unmarked platinum and unmarked white gold, or, for that matter, between either of those metals and stainless steel, and even an approximation of the quality of unmarked yellow gold would be with difficulty arrived at.
But when it comes to the determination of gemstones, the difficulties which beset such establishments would cause shivers of apprehension in a gemologist.
Of course, jewelers in that position can always say that it is possible to ‘play safe’, ‘when in doubt, don’t buy’, or ‘sell?’, ‘when not sure, allow nothing for the colored stone’, ‘buy it as 9 carat (or even when is obvious better than that….15 carat). But surely that is unethical and dishonest. What would be thought of a doctor who said ‘I can’t be sure whether it is colic or appendicitis, so we had better operate?’
A knowledge of gemology and the purchase of a little equipment would resolve most, if not all these doubts. In the case of precious metals, the expenditure of a few shillings and an hour of time with Selwyn’s ‘Retail Jeweler’s Handbook’ are all that is necessary to banish them for ever. Precious stones require a little more attention, but the possession of a few scientific instruments and an easily acquired knowledge of the technique of their use constitutes all that is necessary to transform an empiricist into a scientist, or one who guesses into one who knows.
The cost of these instruments might deter the individual, as it is in the region of thirty to forty pounds, but it should not, under any circumstances, deter a business, or an individual if he happens to be the proprietor of a small business, as this equipment will in a few years pay handsome dividends if used with knowledge and imagination. In any case, the increased confidence to be gained from their use will manifest itself inevitably in more and more successful sales talk.
‘I don’t want to turn my showrooms into a laboratory’ is a remark occasionally heard, but a consultation in Harley Street will be conducted in the atmosphere of a cultured 18th century salon, with gastroscopes, cystoscopes, and even such a pleasant instrument as the microscope, kept well in the background. No one doubts their existence and possible proximity, however, and the certainty that the consultant will take every advantage in diagnosis they offer, makes his advice invaluable as compared with the advice of the greatest physician of medieval times.
What equipment will benefit the jeweler? Here is a list of instruments in the order in which they should be purchased, in the opinion of the writer:
- The refractometer (Tully, Herbert Smith, or Rayner)
- Heavy liquids (Bromoform, methylene iodide, clerici solution)
- Petrological microscope
- The dichroscope
- The spectroscope
The method of their use is fully explained in textbooks written specially for the jeweler, but the first essential is a competent knowledge of gemology.
Staurolite
Chemistry: Hydrated aluminum silicate.
Crystal system: Orthorhombic; cross-shaped, interpenetrant twins at 60º or 90º;crystals display pseudo-hexagonal cross section.
Color: Transparent to opaque: reddish brown.
Hardness: 7 – 7.5
Cleavage: Poor: 1 direction; fracture: brittle, conchoidal.
Specific gravity: 3.65 – 3.78
Refractive index: 1.739 – 1.762; Biaxial positive; 0.011-0.015
Luster: Vitreous to resinous.
Dispersion: Moderate.
Dichroism: Colorless, yellow/red, golden yellow; varies.
Occurrence: Metamorphic; Switzerland, France, Brazil, Russia, Scotland, USA.
Notes
Most specimens are opaque and valued for its cross-shaped twins; also known as cross stones, fairy stones; faceted.
Crystal system: Orthorhombic; cross-shaped, interpenetrant twins at 60º or 90º;crystals display pseudo-hexagonal cross section.
Color: Transparent to opaque: reddish brown.
Hardness: 7 – 7.5
Cleavage: Poor: 1 direction; fracture: brittle, conchoidal.
Specific gravity: 3.65 – 3.78
Refractive index: 1.739 – 1.762; Biaxial positive; 0.011-0.015
Luster: Vitreous to resinous.
Dispersion: Moderate.
Dichroism: Colorless, yellow/red, golden yellow; varies.
Occurrence: Metamorphic; Switzerland, France, Brazil, Russia, Scotland, USA.
Notes
Most specimens are opaque and valued for its cross-shaped twins; also known as cross stones, fairy stones; faceted.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Tanzanite And Some Imitations
Zoisite: Blue to violet
Tanzanite (trade name)
R.I=1.688 – 1.696 (1.691 – 1.700); Birefringence=0.008 – 0.009; S.G=3.35
Heavy Pb-Glass
U.M Tanzanic (trade name)
R.I=1.600 – 1.605; Birefringence= Isotropic (SR); S.G=3.36 – 3.48
YAG
Purple Coranite (trade name)
R.I= >1.80; Birefringence= Isotropic (SR); S.G=4.58
Synthetic Corundum
Blue Coranite (trade name)
R.I=1.764 – 1.771; Birefringence= 0.007; S.G=4.02
YAG
Russian YAG (trade name)
R.I=>1.80; Birefringence= Isotropic (SR); S.G= 4.56
Ca-Phosphate Glass
R.I=1.537; Birefringence=Isotropic (SR); S.G=2.64
Tanzanite (trade name)
R.I=1.688 – 1.696 (1.691 – 1.700); Birefringence=0.008 – 0.009; S.G=3.35
Heavy Pb-Glass
U.M Tanzanic (trade name)
R.I=1.600 – 1.605; Birefringence= Isotropic (SR); S.G=3.36 – 3.48
YAG
Purple Coranite (trade name)
R.I= >1.80; Birefringence= Isotropic (SR); S.G=4.58
Synthetic Corundum
Blue Coranite (trade name)
R.I=1.764 – 1.771; Birefringence= 0.007; S.G=4.02
YAG
Russian YAG (trade name)
R.I=>1.80; Birefringence= Isotropic (SR); S.G= 4.56
Ca-Phosphate Glass
R.I=1.537; Birefringence=Isotropic (SR); S.G=2.64
The House Of Mondavi: The Rise And Fall Of An American Wine Dynasty
Good Books: Here is what the description of the book The House Of Mondavi: The Rise And Fall Of An American Wine Dynasty says: (via Amazon)
An epic, scandal-plagued story of the immigrant family that built—and then spectacularly lost—a global wine empire
Set in California’s lush Napa Valley and spanning four generations of a talented and visionary family, The House of Mondavi is a tale of genius, sibling rivalry, and betrayal. From 1906, when Italian immigrant Cesare Mondavi passed through Ellis Island, to the Robert Mondavi Corp.’s twenty-first-century battle over a billion-dollar fortune, award-winning journalist Julia Flynn brings to life both the place and the people in this riveting family drama.
The blood feuds are as spectacular as the business triumphs. Cesare’s sons, Robert and Peter, literally came to blows in the 1960s during a dispute touched off by the purchase of a mink coat, resulting in Robert’s exile from the family—and his subsequent founding of a winery that would set off a revolution in American winemaking. Robert’s sons, Michael and Timothy, as passionate in their own ways as their visionary father, waged battle with each other for control of the company before Michael’s expansive ambitions ultimately led to a board coup and the sale of the business to an international conglomerate.
A meticulously reported narrative based on thousands of hours of interviews, The House of Mondavi is bound to become a classic.
Here is a review from Penguin (via Amazon):
An epic, scandal-plagued story of the immigrant family that built—and then spectacularly lost—a global wine empire.
Set in California’s lush Napa Valley and spanning four generations of a talented and visionary family, The House of Mondavi is a tale of genius, sibling rivalry, and betrayal. From 1906, when Italian immigrant Cesare Mondavi passed through Ellis Island, to the Robert Mondavi Corp.’s twenty-first-century battle over a billion-dollar fortune, award-winning journalist Julia Flynn brings to life both the place and the people in this riveting family drama.
The blood feuds are as spectacular as the business triumphs. Cesare’s sons, Robert and Peter, literally came to blows in the 1960s during a dispute touched off by the purchase of a mink coat, resulting in Robert’s exile from the family—and his subsequent founding of a winery that would set off a revolution in American winemaking. Robert’s sons, Michael and Timothy, as passionate in their own ways as their visionary father, waged battle with each other for control of the company before Michael’s expansive ambitions ultimately led to a board coup and the sale of the business to an international conglomerate.
A meticulously reported narrative based on thousands of hours of interviews, The House of Mondavi is bound to become a classic.
It's a must-read book + blood feuds + (business) split-personalities are common traits in any business + when it happens in a family, it becomes a classic thriller.
An epic, scandal-plagued story of the immigrant family that built—and then spectacularly lost—a global wine empire
Set in California’s lush Napa Valley and spanning four generations of a talented and visionary family, The House of Mondavi is a tale of genius, sibling rivalry, and betrayal. From 1906, when Italian immigrant Cesare Mondavi passed through Ellis Island, to the Robert Mondavi Corp.’s twenty-first-century battle over a billion-dollar fortune, award-winning journalist Julia Flynn brings to life both the place and the people in this riveting family drama.
The blood feuds are as spectacular as the business triumphs. Cesare’s sons, Robert and Peter, literally came to blows in the 1960s during a dispute touched off by the purchase of a mink coat, resulting in Robert’s exile from the family—and his subsequent founding of a winery that would set off a revolution in American winemaking. Robert’s sons, Michael and Timothy, as passionate in their own ways as their visionary father, waged battle with each other for control of the company before Michael’s expansive ambitions ultimately led to a board coup and the sale of the business to an international conglomerate.
A meticulously reported narrative based on thousands of hours of interviews, The House of Mondavi is bound to become a classic.
Here is a review from Penguin (via Amazon):
An epic, scandal-plagued story of the immigrant family that built—and then spectacularly lost—a global wine empire.
Set in California’s lush Napa Valley and spanning four generations of a talented and visionary family, The House of Mondavi is a tale of genius, sibling rivalry, and betrayal. From 1906, when Italian immigrant Cesare Mondavi passed through Ellis Island, to the Robert Mondavi Corp.’s twenty-first-century battle over a billion-dollar fortune, award-winning journalist Julia Flynn brings to life both the place and the people in this riveting family drama.
The blood feuds are as spectacular as the business triumphs. Cesare’s sons, Robert and Peter, literally came to blows in the 1960s during a dispute touched off by the purchase of a mink coat, resulting in Robert’s exile from the family—and his subsequent founding of a winery that would set off a revolution in American winemaking. Robert’s sons, Michael and Timothy, as passionate in their own ways as their visionary father, waged battle with each other for control of the company before Michael’s expansive ambitions ultimately led to a board coup and the sale of the business to an international conglomerate.
A meticulously reported narrative based on thousands of hours of interviews, The House of Mondavi is bound to become a classic.
It's a must-read book + blood feuds + (business) split-personalities are common traits in any business + when it happens in a family, it becomes a classic thriller.
The Change Function
Good Books: (via Emergic) The Change Function is about why some technologies succeed -- and others fail. The short answer: The Change Function = f (user crisis vs. total perceived pain of adoption).
From the book’s description:
After years of studying countless winners and losers, Coburn has come up with a simple idea that explains why some technologies become huge hits (iPods, DVD players, Netflix), but others never reach more than a tiny audience (Segways, video phones, tablet PCs). He says that people are only willing to change when the pain of their current situation outweighs the perceived pain of trying something new.
In other words, technology demands a change in habits, and that’s the leading cause of failure for countless cool inventions. Too many tech companies believe in build it and they will come -- build something better and people will beat a path to your door. But, as Coburn shows, most potential users are afraid of new technologies, and they need a really great reason to change.
Here is an excerpt from the book (from Fast Company):
Technologists think we'll gladly adopt an innovation when it's manifestly smarter. But change is an emotion-laden process; disrupting, game-changing technologies. No way. Most of us despise being disrupted and don't wish to be game-changed.
The technologies that stand the best chance of winning us over are enhanced editions of products we already understand. Flat-panel televisions, for example, are much better televisions with low perceived pain of adoption. Everyone "gets" what a basic television is all about. There's nothing to learn. At the same time, flat-panel TVs address a powerful need. True, it's both subtle and self-fulfilling: It's the psychic pain we feel for not having one. Since 19% of televisions sold in 2005 were flat panels, the technology appears set to hit a societal tipping point. Anyone who doesn't have one will feel deeply embarrassed about it. If that's not a crisis, I don't know what is.
A technology's success or failure is not merely fated. Instead, it demands action of one of two varieties. Technologists can identify and intensify a customer crisis. Or they can reduce the perceived pain of adoption.
Tom Evslin wrote about the book: It’s important, says Pip, not to confuse a perceived crisis on the part of the would-be vendor with a crisis on the part of the prospect. The oft-failed Picturephone (not be confused with cell phones that take pictures) was an answer to a crisis felt by telcos, not their customers. They needed new high-margin products. TPPA (Total Perceived Pain of Adoption) for this product/service has always been high both because we aren’t used to being seen when we talk remotely and because the first users (and someone has to be the first user) can’t find anyone else to talk to?
I think it's an interesting book because it aggregates many concepts, its unique chemistry + why sometimes there is chemical mismatch between perceptions and realities.
From the book’s description:
After years of studying countless winners and losers, Coburn has come up with a simple idea that explains why some technologies become huge hits (iPods, DVD players, Netflix), but others never reach more than a tiny audience (Segways, video phones, tablet PCs). He says that people are only willing to change when the pain of their current situation outweighs the perceived pain of trying something new.
In other words, technology demands a change in habits, and that’s the leading cause of failure for countless cool inventions. Too many tech companies believe in build it and they will come -- build something better and people will beat a path to your door. But, as Coburn shows, most potential users are afraid of new technologies, and they need a really great reason to change.
Here is an excerpt from the book (from Fast Company):
Technologists think we'll gladly adopt an innovation when it's manifestly smarter. But change is an emotion-laden process; disrupting, game-changing technologies. No way. Most of us despise being disrupted and don't wish to be game-changed.
The technologies that stand the best chance of winning us over are enhanced editions of products we already understand. Flat-panel televisions, for example, are much better televisions with low perceived pain of adoption. Everyone "gets" what a basic television is all about. There's nothing to learn. At the same time, flat-panel TVs address a powerful need. True, it's both subtle and self-fulfilling: It's the psychic pain we feel for not having one. Since 19% of televisions sold in 2005 were flat panels, the technology appears set to hit a societal tipping point. Anyone who doesn't have one will feel deeply embarrassed about it. If that's not a crisis, I don't know what is.
A technology's success or failure is not merely fated. Instead, it demands action of one of two varieties. Technologists can identify and intensify a customer crisis. Or they can reduce the perceived pain of adoption.
Tom Evslin wrote about the book: It’s important, says Pip, not to confuse a perceived crisis on the part of the would-be vendor with a crisis on the part of the prospect. The oft-failed Picturephone (not be confused with cell phones that take pictures) was an answer to a crisis felt by telcos, not their customers. They needed new high-margin products. TPPA (Total Perceived Pain of Adoption) for this product/service has always been high both because we aren’t used to being seen when we talk remotely and because the first users (and someone has to be the first user) can’t find anyone else to talk to?
I think it's an interesting book because it aggregates many concepts, its unique chemistry + why sometimes there is chemical mismatch between perceptions and realities.
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