(Started writing this as a linkedin comment but it was too long)
Super cool article man! Made me wonder about a couple things:
You briefly mention early adopters in the builders/translators paradigm, but it seems like you're talking about adopters of a platform (app creators) - but what about the role of early power users? I'd say they can, to some extent, function as translators. For example, an early user of a new social network might establish memes and paradigms of interaction, as well as starting to establish that network that will make other users stick around. I think this is interesting to consider because while I do agree that everyone needs that translation from existing patterns to engage with a product, it seems like early adopter types have a much lower threshold for level of required familiarity.
Re: abstract thought not existing, I think what you're describing is actually precisely abstract thought. When we talk about making software more abstract, an "Eater" class that can only operate on "Person" and "apple" isn't very abstract, but one that can also handle "Software" and "world" is more abstract - similarly, I'd argue that the ability to talk about software eating the world means that you're taking the idea of consuming food and applying it to an entirely different area, abstractly. You're generalizing the idea of consuming. The idea you've created that can be applied to both the concept of consuming an apple and software consuming has to be abstract, since it can handle both of these wildly different cases. Definitely can probably boil this down to just being semantics, but wanted to play devil's advocate :)
This is a good point. I do think early adopters are crucial in the process of mass adoption. That said, it's not always the case that they are translators. I think it's dependent on the platform / early adopter user base. For example, crypto has plenty of early adopters but the industry still struggles to attract users (and even technologists) with less familiarity with the fundamentals (let alone nuances of crypto). Alternative meats is similar - vegetarians were early adopters of the category but they had a fundamentally different palate than the rest of the population, and thus did little to bring about the mass shift.
Also agree with that point about abstract thought! I think Lakoff would say that the theory mostly applies to "concepts" rather than "connections" like you mention. Generalization is absolutely an abstract thought process!
(Started writing this as a linkedin comment but it was too long)
Super cool article man! Made me wonder about a couple things:
You briefly mention early adopters in the builders/translators paradigm, but it seems like you're talking about adopters of a platform (app creators) - but what about the role of early power users? I'd say they can, to some extent, function as translators. For example, an early user of a new social network might establish memes and paradigms of interaction, as well as starting to establish that network that will make other users stick around. I think this is interesting to consider because while I do agree that everyone needs that translation from existing patterns to engage with a product, it seems like early adopter types have a much lower threshold for level of required familiarity.
Re: abstract thought not existing, I think what you're describing is actually precisely abstract thought. When we talk about making software more abstract, an "Eater" class that can only operate on "Person" and "apple" isn't very abstract, but one that can also handle "Software" and "world" is more abstract - similarly, I'd argue that the ability to talk about software eating the world means that you're taking the idea of consuming food and applying it to an entirely different area, abstractly. You're generalizing the idea of consuming. The idea you've created that can be applied to both the concept of consuming an apple and software consuming has to be abstract, since it can handle both of these wildly different cases. Definitely can probably boil this down to just being semantics, but wanted to play devil's advocate :)
Looking forward to the next one!
This is a good point. I do think early adopters are crucial in the process of mass adoption. That said, it's not always the case that they are translators. I think it's dependent on the platform / early adopter user base. For example, crypto has plenty of early adopters but the industry still struggles to attract users (and even technologists) with less familiarity with the fundamentals (let alone nuances of crypto). Alternative meats is similar - vegetarians were early adopters of the category but they had a fundamentally different palate than the rest of the population, and thus did little to bring about the mass shift.
Also agree with that point about abstract thought! I think Lakoff would say that the theory mostly applies to "concepts" rather than "connections" like you mention. Generalization is absolutely an abstract thought process!
Thanks for the questions man! 🙌