
Ask HN: Are early adopters rich? - 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).<p>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..."<p>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.<p>Do you think early adopters are "rich"?
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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.

~~~
phamilton
A big part of this is that the value of your time has gone up. The poor
college kids have little or no value attached to their time. As you start
getting paid more, being an early adopter has a higher opportunity cost.

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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.

~~~
phillian
That's a great observation. From my own experience I would agree- smart &
young sometimes requires thrift; smart & thrifty can be ageless; thrifty and
young sometimes requires making smart choices.

And, eventually, the product of smart choices and thrift by someone young can
make them rich.

That said, no- I don't know a single early adopter who is independently
wealthy (which fits my definition of 'rich').

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waterlesscloud
I haven't had cable since the early 90s. I got frustrated at how annoying it
was to set up service with them when I'd be paying $1000+ a year to them. So I
gave up trying to make it easy for them to take my money and just never signed
up up when I moved. I don't miss it, and I wish all the companies involved
doom and gloom.

~~~
zumbojo
Same here; I think cable companies’ complacency in customer service issues
isn’t receiving due consideration when discussing this “cord-cutting” trend.

When I purchased my house in 2008, I proceeded to call Comcast (intending to
sign up for basic cable + Internet), set my iPhone on speakerphone, and paint
the walls of my new rooms. After three nights of 30-45 minute waits with no
answer, I gave up and purchased AT&T DSL.

~~~
prodigal_erik
Comcast's site mentioned self-installation, so I went out and bought a DOCSIS
3 modem that was on their supported list, plugged it in, and it told me via
HTTP that it had a good signal. Then when I tried to sign up they explained to
me that self-installation was not permitted for new users, and rather than
just light it up, I would have to wait two weeks and stay home from work so
some flunky could show up and "install" a simple device which _I already knew
to be working_. Pissed me off so much I went with DSL, which was live via
self-install a few days later.

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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."

~~~
tomjen3
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.

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

~~~
phillian
At the time I was living in Philadelphia. A year prior I had been living in
San Fran or a touch under 70k and barely making it.

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jerf
In _general_ , I would say that "early adopters" are not necessarily rich so
much as flush with disposable income.

This is actually a weird case, because usually being an early adopter requires
a financial outlay to purchase some product that provides some sort of
superior service of some kind. In this case, we see people with the early
adopter mindset but trying to save money who are instead giving up some
convenient service (at least, cable with DVR is convenient) for a cheaper
alternative that is now merely "good enough". Because I've done it, and while
I'm slowly putting the pieces back together as the world catches up with me, I
have definitely sacrificed some things. I'm not getting superior service here,
I'm cobbling together bits and pieces.

Still, we are getting there. Sports was a big hole but I just watched
$MY_COLLEGE_TEAM's last game of the year online in HD over the Internet.
That's progress vs. even just three months ago. Cord cutting is getting easier
and easier.

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giardini
No. But they have fun!

An acquaintance bought one of the first Compaq computers. He paid $4000 for
it. He kept it in his office and would tell people: "When that computer came
out, had I instead bought $4000 of stock in Compaq, I would be much wealthier
today. Instead I bought the computer, learned to program it and did OK."

------
tomjen3
Not really, but I would imagine they are generally male, with a college degree
and extreme tech proficiency.

~~~
phillian
For what it's worth, I'm a female former English major.

(Who also happens to be learning how to code.)

~~~
tomjen3
Well I was right on one count.

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zazi
I think there is some correlation between early adopters and how rich they
are.

I would definitely buy more early products if I was rich just because I have
the financial backing to withstand the risk that an early product has. E.g.
I'm waiting to buy the iPad now in hopes of a better iPad version coming out
soon. But if money was no issue, I would buy the iPad now and the new version
when it comes out.

But of course, there are some people that would be early adopters despite not
being rich. It's just that the statistics of how rich early adopters are would
be skewed by the newly rich being more willing to take more risk and spend
their money on untried products.

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NEPatriot
I don't think early adopters are necessarily rich. I think they set aside a
portion of their income for early technology exploration in the same way some
might for vacations or clothes.

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lukeschlather
I don't think cord-cutters qualify as early adopters anymore. With Hulu's paid
offering and Netflix, cable is pretty much useless. At this point people who
still have cable are mostly hidebound or sports aficionados.

Well, that and they have too many functional analog TVs. That's the only
reason I haven't switched my parents off is that we'd need Boxee boxes or
similar, and they haven't quite come down in price to the point where I'd
rather not just buy a laptop and pretend it's a TV.

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jsz0
Sorting out the wealthy vs. non-wealthy is difficult. Way too many factors to
consider. It's probably safer to say that early adopters are more willing to
spend their money on technology/gadgets/service but it's not directly tied to
income. If you can put aside maybe $2-3K/year you can be a prolific early
adopter these days. It's confusing though in the context of cord-cutters
because they're doing it to _save_ money. Cable TV is just way too expensive.

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icco
Most college students I know these days who live in their own place (About 65%
of the student population around here) don't have cable. This is because most
are apt enough at using the Internet, that they can find all shows for free.
Some use Hulu and the like, while others torrent, but maybe one in ten
actually pay for cable.

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rythie
You say are not rich, but you even though you like tech. you might not be an
early adoptor either.

If you didn't have an iPhone or twitter account by 2007 or don't have accounts
on lots of now failed startups from the day they got techcrunched, you're not
an early adoptor.

I know I'm not particularly an early adoptor, most of my users are.

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madair
1\. Early adopters of ideas is not the same as early adopters of gadgets &
services

2\. That said, some new gadgets & services are stand-ins for others which are
more expensive or less accessible

3\. Except for #1 and #2, Yes, early adopters are male white privilege

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siculars
Cable free for the last year or so. I just could not keep paying 100$/mo+ on
principal. Now it's just internet and netflix, obviously.

~~~
phillian
That was my experience. Even though I have the means now, the cost is not
proportional to the service benefit for me.

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vkdelta
Not really. But they surely want to save some money on their Cable.

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vaksel
I think it largely depends on the value proposition of the service.

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sliceof314
you're wrong, they all rich! rich! richer than astronauts!!!

