Link: http://www.etc-architect.com/?p=269
From ETC-Architect
With every trend in architecture and in IT we are always faced with analysts and a lot of marketing people declaring that staying put this time is just no option. The last example I have seen was with digitalisation. At the same time I had contact with a business that was just introducing email and word processing as they up to 2016 still only supported phone and letters. They were running all their business without a bit of IT and asked for advice to keep it as low as possible, just being faced with the problem in obtaining non IT office supplies. Their business at the same time is doing extremely well and has grown the last 20 years without any problem. You would usually call them very late adopters, but they often show us that it is possible to without things for a long time and offer a good reality check on all those that are panicking us in early adoption.
Actually panicking people and companies into early adoption is often the only way to get people started on a new technology and empirical data shows us very clear that early adopters are usually not on the winning side, while the the first real benefits of a new technology occurs when there is a widespread adoption. So another concept to panic is to create a hype that is based on feelings and guilt of not being part of it. The real problem here is that by now usually it affects professionals far more than companies, so you often end up with a two speed adoption in the private and in in enterprises. Often this early adoption of technology in homes rather than in enterprises offers a lot of benefits as by the time the adoption is done in the enterprise you have a large pool of supporters.
Given that our society will also grow in age instead of size in most economies there will often actually be an industry to help companies to have as little disruption with technologies as possible. So for architects the message is to keep calm and carry on without feeling guilty of not knowing go the latest trends as the ignorance may even be an asset to your career.
