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Ask HN: Are early adopters rich?

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Ask HN: Are early adopters rich?

#1

Post by phillian »

The Lex Column in this weekend's Financial Time ran a small snippet about US Cable Companies, namely about how the phenomenon of "cord-cutters" is making investors uneasy (Comcast reports to have lost 119,000 in the 3Q alone).

One quote, in particular, struck me - "There are a few problems with the consumer-as-surgeon thesis, though. For a start, it relies on the early adopters of technology, who are generally rich..."

A proud cord-cutter since 2006, I am certainly not rich. And most of the people I know without cable aren't either; they are young, technologically savvy or forced-into-thrift via the recession.

Do you think early adopters are "rich"?

Re: Ask HN: Are early adopters rich?

#2

Post by Retric »

Despite what you might hear if you make more than 60k USD a year you are fairly well off.

For the US take your salary divide by 50k and say "I make X times the average household income in the USA."

Re: Ask HN: Are early adopters rich?

#3

Post by tomjen3 »

Retric wrote: post #2

Despite what you might hear if you make more than 60k USD a year you are fairly well off. For the US take your salary divide by 50k and say "I make X times the average household income in the USA."

That may make you middle class, or even lower upper middle class if you want to stretch it, but i doubt you could be called rich on that salary.

Re: Ask HN: Are early adopters rich?

#6

Post by jedberg »

tomjen3 wrote: post #3
Retric wrote: post #2

Despite what you might hear if you make more than 60k USD a year you are fairly well off. For the US take your salary divide by 50k and say "I make X times the average household income in the USA."

That may make you middle class, or even lower upper middle class if you want to stretch it, but i doubt you could be called rich on that salary.

It depends where you live. In San Francisco, 60K is just scarping by. In Topeka, you're doing pretty well.

Re: Ask HN: Are early adopters rich?

#8

Post by jedberg »

I would personally say the opposite is true for me. When I was in college (and poor, living paycheck to paycheck), I would try every new thing. Mp3? What's that? Let me download some. This thing has some kinks? No problem, I'll figure it out and post my findings on a newsgroup.

But now, as my income has gone up and my free time has gone down, I find myself doing less early adopting, and waiting a bit longer till all the college kids work out the kinks for me. Sure, I'm still an early adopter in the grand scheme of things (I dropped cable a few years ago for torrents, for example), but I'm definitely picking things up later in their lifespans than I used to.

Re: Ask HN: Are early adopters rich?

#9

Post by hexis »

I don't have anything better than my own anecdotal impressions, but it seems to me that early adopters tend to be smart, rather than rich. That said, most people I've known who were smart and not rich were also young. Most people I've known who were smart and responsible eventually started to accumulate money. So, even if an early adopter isn't rich now, chances are they will get there in time.
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