Daily Data: The Rapid Adoption of Things

Once we get new things, we have very little experience giving them back

Good morning, party people.

I’m writing from way up in the sky, but by the time you read this—and you will read this—I will be back on terra firma. I will have more thoughts on technology and real estate (the nature of my Sin City sojourn) later, but for now, it’s your morning dose of daily data, taken once a day, five times per week, on the 8’s.

Enjoy.

Daily Data

Adopting New Great Things Rapidly

Goldman Sachs recirculated its own version of the “adoption curve” chart, showing how quickly we start using certain new things that we find very useful:

Flush toilets weren’t so special, after all

What stands out:

• The speed at which we adopt these things has accelerated. One can excuse the somewhat slow early adoption of flush toilets and running water, presumably because of the infrastructure lift involved. (You can’t just buy running water—there’s lots of public plumbing that needs to get connected.) But while cool stuff like vacuums, washing machines, and cars have steep curves, they’re still …