Within a Sky Full of Earth

[Are you an Early Adopter, a Innovator, a Laggard or a Luddite?]

An Early Adopter is a person who embraces new technology or new ideas before most other people do. Early adopters tend to buy or try out new stuff, and new versions of existing ways of life, sooner than most of their peers. According to a theory called Diffusion of Innovations (DoI) formulated by Everett Rogers, Early Adopters make up 13.5 percent of the population.

Early Adopters, while eager to explore new options in technology and in other subjects of life, are not the most daring, and are not especially prone to taking risks. That role, according to Rogers, is played by a small minority of people called Innovators. Only one person in 40 is of this type. They are the people most likely to conceive and develop new methodologies and technologies, and who often end up running large corporations or founding new ones.

Early Adopters and Innovators have counterparts, known as Laggards and Luddites, at the opposite end of the human spectrum. Laggards are slow or reluctant to embrace new technology because of disinterest or financial constraints. Luddites actively fear or loathe new technology and new experiences, especially those forms they believe threaten existing jobs. Luddites have mechanical jobs for life, they don't use their creativity and most of them watch TV and hardly read a book.