Vyanne has been commenting on how she is, in her own words, a "techno laggard". This is a echo of an entry she wrote 1 1/2 years ago where she lamented that she is such a boring consumer who doesn't try new things. This louder and more recent echo somehow got me to think about how I am also a techno laggard despite being an engineer who knows more about all the cool technologies. I'm somewhat ashamed that I only just started owning a digital camera (1 year ago) and flash drive (2 days ago); I've also never owned a PDA, MP3 player (if I do, it will NEVER, i repeat, NEVER be an iPod), cellphone (imagine that, when I start working, I'll actually own my first cellphone), webcam... etc. I think my consumer habits practically puts me in the same category as the dino-technophile-60-year-olds.
You'd think that most engineers would be tech geeks. Maybe me having an Operations Research bachelor's (what about the bachelor-ettes?!?) degree has something to do with it. Taken from The Science of Better site (a site dedicated to promoting the use of OR through increased understanding), "operations research (O.R.) is the discipline of applying advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions." So my decisions are ultimately measured by how much value am I getting per dollar -- how much value does this product/ feature provide me, how much does it cost etc. can see the engineer in me emerging already.
Somehow, most first adopters of technology are male. Owning the newest, sleekest, fastest piece of technology gives them bragging rights among their peers, establishing them as the alpha male who can afford to pay premium prices for something that he doesn't necessarily need. And it is true that first adopters pay premium prices since economies of scale doesn't kick in until the number of people buying the technology has reaches some critical mass.
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