Every Damn Revolution Starts With Some Smart Guy Saying It's Useless
When personal computers were invented, the famous quote attributed to IBM's Thomas Watson was "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." Now here's the kicker - turns out Watson probably never said this shit. It's an urban legend that's been passed around more times than your college roommate's Netflix password. But the sentiment was real - those room-filling, 30-ton monsters seemed pretty fucking useless for regular people.
Fast forward to today: Nearly half the world's households have at least one computer - that's roughly 4 billion households globally. In developed countries, it's 80% of households. We went from "maybe five computers worldwide" to billions of households owning multiple devices, plus people carrying supercomputers in their pockets that they use to film their breakfast and share it with strangers.
When ARPANET (the internet's granddaddy) was created in 1969, it was strictly for military research and connecting universities. The thinking was simple - this packet-switching network thing was only useful for defense contractors, academics, and researchers. Regular people? Nah, they don't need this complicated network shit.
Now 5.5 billion people - that's 68% of the world's population - use the internet daily. You pay for internet service like it's electricity or water. In developed countries, 93% of people are online. It's not a luxury anymore, it's infrastructure. Your grandma video calls her friends in another country like it's nothing.
When ChatGPT was released to the public in November 2022, some dude in every office said using it to write code was cheating. "Real developers don't need AI assistance," they proclaimed while furiously clacking away on their $300 mechanical keyboards with custom keycaps and RGB lighting.
And now that dude is no longer with the company.
Let's face it, I don't want AI to take control of my life, but I want to make use of it to make my life better. It's just a tool, so you use it like a tool. Why? Because you will never see a farmer fall in love with his shovel.
The pattern is always the same. Every breakthrough starts with smart people explaining why it's useless, limited, or only for a tiny group of specialists. Then reality kicks in, the technology improves, costs drop, and suddenly everyone's using the "useless" thing.
So when the next big thing comes along and some expert explains why it'll never work for regular people, remember this: they said the same shit about computers, the internet, and AI.
The experts are usually wrong about adoption. The technology finds its way into everyone's life anyway.
Bottom Line
Don't let the "experts" convince you the future is smaller than it actually is. Use the tools, embrace the useful stuff, and let the skeptics explain later why they were wrong.
P.S.: If Thomas Watson was still around today, he'd probably say "I think there's a world market for maybe five AI chatbots." Meanwhile, ChatGPT alone has 200 million weekly users. Some patterns never change.