{"id":4443,"date":"2024-03-03T00:46:37","date_gmt":"2024-03-03T06:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:10043\/?p=4443"},"modified":"2025-11-04T09:14:01","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T15:14:01","slug":"when-we-can-choose-to-be-a-late-adopter-i-like-that-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/when-we-can-choose-to-be-a-late-adopter-i-like-that-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"When We Can Choose to Be a Late Adopter, I Like That Choice"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared in\u00a0The Tennessean<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Better later than never?<\/p>\n

When it came to getting COVID, I was hoping for never.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m that guy.<\/p>\n

I’m the germophobe, who, despite the pandemic being over, remains at the ready with a mask and a bottle of hand sanitizer in my pocket at all times. I\u2019ve still been dining outside as much as possible (even when it\u2019s cold,) avoiding crowds, and holding my breath at the grocery store.<\/p>\n

Undeterred by some eye rolling from friends and family, it took 1,503 days (about 4 years) by my count from the first case of COVID until this past week when I felt the beginnings of scratchy throat and a stuffy nose.<\/p>\n

I hoped it was a cold, strep throat, or some psychosomatic ailment that would go away in an hour. \u00a0Anything but COVID!<\/p>\n

But alas, with the onset of a fever and positive test, I accepted my fate.<\/p>\n

The timing was par for the course for me.<\/p>\n

Unlike COVID, where it\u2019s impossible to completely control when you get it, in most everything else in life I\u2019ve always been what marketing people refer to as a \u201clate adopter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite being in the tech field, or perhaps because of it, I\u2019ve always been one of those people who takes their time before jumping on any bandwagon.<\/p>\n

I waited for version two of the iPhone before giving up my Blackberry. I sat on the sidelines for years when Facebook began to catch on preferring to wait and see before going all in. And I let others try Uber before I finally felt comfortable trying it myself.<\/p>\n

Like many things in life, my late adopter tendencies have been both good and bad.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, here and there my late to-the-party strategy has put me behind the curve on things that have proven to be useful.<\/p>\n

I loved the technology behind the cloud, but before moving all our company\u2019s infrastructure, I wanted to see how it worked for others.\u00a0 I have gotten deep into using AI to make our business more efficient<\/a>, but I spent a year testing it before making the leap.<\/p>\n

But as a techie, I know that early versions of new products can sometimes come with kinks that take some time to be worked out.\u00a0 And just because something is initially popular doesn\u2019t mean that it will continue to be.<\/p>\n

Laser disks, Bitcoin, Google Glass, 3D TV\u2019s\u2014the world is littered with innovations that in hindsight would have been best to avoid.<\/p>\n

So, where\u2019s, the sweet spot?<\/p>\n

Business is a game of taking calculated risks and making smart tradeoffs.\u00a0 Too much caution around embracing innovation carries with it the risk that the competition will pass you by.\u00a0 But jumping on an unproven bandwagon too soon can be costly if you\u2019re wrong.<\/p>\n

Being an early or late adopter isn\u2019t an exact science.\u00a0 And while most of us trend toward one or the other, I\u2019ve found it\u2019s best to recognize your comfort zone and then take on innovations as they come\u2014one at a time.<\/p>\n

As I came out of my COVID fog, I was reminded that there are many times where being early or late isn\u2019t something you can choose.\u00a0 So, for me at least, when I do have a choice, I\u2019ll likely continue to be just behind the crowd\u2014with my mask on.<\/p>\n

JJ Rosen is the founder of <\/em>Atiba<\/em><\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0a <\/em>custom software development firm<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and <\/em>Nashville IT support company.<\/em><\/a>\u00a0Visit <\/em>Atiba.com<\/em><\/a>\u00a0for more info.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared in\u00a0The Tennessean. Better later than never? When it came to getting COVID, I was hoping for never. I\u2019m that guy. I’m the germophobe, who, despite the pandemic being over, remains at the ready with a mask and a bottle of hand sanitizer in my pocket at all times. I\u2019ve still been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":4444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[217],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-tennessean"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}