3 reasons to be an early adopter (in your niche or industry)
Forget social proof and just try stuff. Let others follow you.
It’s been about a decade since I seriously became interested in technology, and I came to a realization: one of my biggest leverage points for learning and opportunity has simply been signing up for lots of new technology tools when I come across them.
To many, this might seem like something between a quirk, a hobby, or even a waste of time. But I consider it one of the best ways to continue learning in your niche or industry of choice.
Here are three reasons why.
You find new tools or experiences that can improve your life.
This might be the most obvious answer, but I’m leading with it because it’s also the most important. By definition, most technology adopters do so only after a tool has been proven “safe and effective” by others.
However, consider trying new tools even before they have mass market social proof. You’ll adopt a mindset of curiosity, exploration, and finding solutions.
While most of these new tools might be short-term novelties or just outright useless for your purposes, others will be genuinely positive experiences, and a select few will become a regular part of your workflow.
As a writer, I regularly try new note-taking, voice-dictation, and now, generative AI apps. Although most get put in the digital dust bin, a select few stick around. The same was true for EdTech tools when I was a teacher. I was often experimenting with new tools, and the best ones replaced others in my personal stack.
This doesn’t need to be a time-consuming process at all by the way. Any app or website with a decent onboarding flow will take a few minutes to get set up and demonstrate its value. Then, the potential future returns of increased efficiency, capability or even just delight make the small time investment well worth it.
You can connect with people who might otherwise be out of reach.
In the mid-2010s I was an early career teacher who was regularly emailing or talking on the phone with founders of K12 education technology companies. Status and achievement wise, there was an imbalance, and it wasn’t in my favor. Yet some of these interactions led to future work, though I wasn’t planning it at the time.
How did this happen? Because I was regularly following AngelList, a platform for tech startups to create profiles for potential investors and employees. Any time I saw a new startup in the K12 education category appear, I went to the website, checked out the tool, and often sent an email sharing unsolicited feedback. These messages were well received.
Maybe you don’t care about connecting with the founders of tech companies (I’m not saying that you should), but I say this to make the point that checking out new tools in whatever industry or niche you’re interested in gives you a foot in the door to connect with people who are sharing new stuff and want to hear from you.
As a side note, this 2x true on any kind of social platform. In the mid-2000s, you could talk to celebrities on Twitter. Today, you can talk to tech big names on AirChat. There’s always a place where those with pre-existing clout don’t have a noisy inbox on the new platform (yet).
You can catch the emergence of a new industry (and be ready for it).
Imagine all the people who only hear mainstream news headlines about artificial intelligence.
I know that most readers here come from the education or technology worlds, who generally have more firsthand experience with AI than others. A large portion of you have tried ChatGPT, for example.
If you only listened to what you heard in the media, you might think of AI as an apocalyptic event happening any day now, or an overblown tech fad that’s just the news of the moment.
However, if you’ve been regularly trying some of the generative AI tools as they come out, then you probably have a more nuanced opinion. Something like this is interesting, not perfect, but powerful, and I can see the potential.
This level of awareness then motivates you to keep following the industry, be on the lookout for new tools that might be useful, and also be less surprised by the monumental leaps or societal shifts that probably will happen as a result of innovative technology like AI.
Quick note: I’m in the process of writing in-depth guides on different areas where I have direct experience and knowledge. The first of these is a copywriting guide for consultants, business owners, and marketers on small teams. It’s called Good Enough Copy in 3 Simple Steps. Check it out.
I’ve heard it said often that your job won’t be replaced by AI, but it will probably be replaced by someone who uses AI. Some version of this is probably true for most industries, at least on the proper timeline.
In other words, learning about and using the latest, most powerful technology in your area of work is good job protection.
There’s more, too
A few additional benefits that didn’t quite need their own section include:
The chance to shape the product through feature requests
Locking in advantageous pricing or access
Opportunity to build status on a platform (imagine being an early driver on Uber as it took off in your city)
You never know which new technology product might become essential to your daily life…or everyone’s daily lives, for that matter. By investing in using them, your also investing in your own continuous learning.
Have you had a noteworthy experience from trying a technology tool or platform in the early days?