What is Wrong With You People?

Don't you realize that this is important?

Almost everyone has something that they are passionate about. It might be a political or a social cause. It might be a particular sport like basketball; a certain hobby like bird watching; or an academic pursuit like geology. It might be associated with a passing fad like scrapbooking or it can be a lifelong pursuit like golf. Whatever it might be, we tend to seek out others who might share an interest in our passions.

We call such people, who will take an interest in whatever we are pursuing even if their interest level falls way below ours, friends. Others who have a genuine interest in our hobby, sport, or other pursuit and will spend a significant amount of time on it too, tend to be good friends. Sometimes our best friend is someone who comes close to being equally passionate about whatever it is that we really like.

If our interests are quite popular, then it can be easy to find others with at least a passing interest in it. The more specialized it becomes, the harder it might be to find others who can relate. A young man with a passion for a certain video game will likely find some friends he can talk to about it and get together to play it. Someone who wants to collect and classify all the dung beetle species in the world will likely need to do a wide search to find others with any interest at all.

The Internet has made it much easier to find others who share an interest when that subject is a very specialized one. Groups can be organized and can meet online to share ideas and discuss findings even when its members are dispersed over a wide geographical area. Whatever our pursuit, there seems to be a great human need to seek out support and comradery around those interests. We can become frustrated when others do not seem to place any importance on things that are important to us.

Inventors tend to have a greater challenge in sharing their pursuit with others. After all, they are designing and building something brand new that no one else knows about yet. It can be unnerving when others fail to grasp or even try to understand what the invention is all about. Some promising inventions are cast to the wayside simply because the inventor fails to attract any early interest in it from friends and neighbors.

There are basically two different kinds of inventors. One kind sees an immediate need and comes up with a solution that presents an improvement over the status quo. They might build something completely new or just find a way to make a ‘better mousetrap’. Many of their inventions greatly improve our lives and may even be a great financial success, but they tend to not be ‘Earth Changing’.

The other kind is someone who seeks to displace how things are done with something that creates a whole new industry. Early versions or prototypes may even be inferior to existing technology, but the inventor is able to envision how it can eventually greatly surpass any competing alternatives. They need to see ‘the big picture’ and have the stamina to overcome what sometime proves to be a long and expensive process.

People invested in the status quo often see such inventions as a threat to their current business model and may try to torpedo the idea or at least be very skeptical. Can you imagine Thomas Edison’s feelings if people continued to light candles and lanterns (maybe because they made or sold candles or lanterns) and refused to flip on a light switch to try out his new light bulb?

In another example, early photographs were far inferior to a quality painting by a gifted artist. Cameras were very bulky and the process for taking and developing pictures was expensive and time consuming. It was very hard for the masses to realize the potential that existed for the average person to be able to take very high quality photos with a hand-held device and do so very quickly, easily, and cheaply. Looking back, modern digital photography may seem inevitable to us today, but the inventors at the time had to overcome a lot of obstacles.

I have invented an entirely new way to store and manage all kinds of data. My Didget Management System is unlike anything available today. Even though good data management is extremely important in our digital world, very few people take a concerted interest in learning how it works and look for ways to improve it. The few who do are generally focused on file systems and databases as they exist today.

I have found it to be extremely frustrating when I try to explain what it is and how it works only to find almost no interest in it. Even ‘data geeks’ who work with data systems all day long seem uninterested in spending a little time trying it out. I have spent a lot of time getting some basic features working so that anyone can try some simple things and see the power it provides with minimal effort. The software is available for free download on my website (www.Didgets.com) and it only takes a few minutes to get started. For the truly lazy, I have recorded a number of short demo videos so anyone can watch it in action; but few have taken the time to view them.

I remain convinced that my system has the potential to significantly change the world. I have personally devoted a lot of time, money, and effort to get it to its current state. But a lot more is needed than I can solely provide before it can reach its full potential. As I noted in previous posts, I lack the sales and marketing skills necessary to attract the help that it needs. If it fails to gain traction, it will fall apart when I am no longer willing and/or able to continue working on it. If that happens, I will not necessarily regret ever working on it because I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenge, but it will still seem a bit like a waste if lots of people do not enjoy the fruits of my efforts.