Do you ever feel like you’re alone on a hill, watching people in the valley below throw a huge annoying party, the kind with fireworks and tubas and car stereos? And do you look around at your snow-covered solitude and wish they would stop making all that noise, noise, noise, noise?

What are they celebrating, anyway? AI? Stonks? Liquid Glass? Hmph.

You and I, we have good reasons to be skeptical of their hijinks. It’s like every time marketing tells people there’s something new, they lose their everloving minds! But we know. We’ve been bitten by early adoption before, and now, as Pebble is my witness, we’re going to wait until v2.

It’s not that I’m against all innovation, I just know too much about it to be excited about it right away. I’m not buying a car until I can have buttons again, because it turns out some things don’t work with mittens. And don’t get me started about the dangers of lane keep assist in snowy conditions!

I was raised by a man who bought betamax, CPM, and laserdisc. If I’m not excited about your floozle or whatever, it’s hard-won suspicion. And why on earth does anyone turn desktop alerts on?

So fine, I’m a curmudgeon. Progressive Delivery was made for me. I can buy something after the initial rush has died down and still get all the benefits.

Right now, I’m sitting in the light of my Nanoleaf hexes. I loved them when I bought them 4 years ago. In that time, they’ve continued to work! Also they’ve added Thread support, more programmability, and a way for me to feed my music directly into the controller from my computer, instead of using the microphone. The value of my investment has increased because the software continues to be upgraded, but it stays interoperable with all the hardware. (I am not paid to do this, but Nanoleaf, if you want to leave something in my stocking…).

When we’re making software, it’s easy to have our hearts and minds focused on The Next Thing, the new hardware that will support it, the rate of adoption. But it’s worth remembering that you may have devoted customers who are not going to install your new things right away. They’re worth listening to. Or you might end up like Microsoft, who estimates that 500 MILLION capable PCs are not being upgraded to Windows 11, because lots of people don’t trust the product and don’t feel heard.

Listen to the users, expand your heart, don’t try to tell them what the value of your stuff is – only they know the true meaning.