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People Often Deride Game Changing Technology as 'a Toy' (medium.com)

Posted by msmash on from the mock-it-if-you-don't-understand-it dept.

Steven Sinofsky, former President of the Windows Division at Microsoft, has cataloged how often game-changing technologies have been derided as toys. Some of the things he has included in the list include a PC, C programming, PC networking, GUI, color screen, AI, and internet video. He writes: As many have recognized, when inventions and innovations first appear they are often (always) labeled as "toys" or "incapable" of doing "real work" or providing "real entertainment." Of course, many new inventions don't work out the way inventors had hoped, though quite frequently it is just a matter of timing and the coming together of a variety of circumstances. It can be said that being labeled a toy is necessary, but not sufficient, to become the next big thing. This got me thinking about all the conferences, trip reports, and new products I have looked at over many years. Sure turns out that a huge number of things in my own career were labeled as toys -- not just by me, but by an industry at large. Check out the list on Medium.

14 of 282 comments (clear)

  1. Windows... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Was a toy, still is a toy, and always will be a toy.

    1. Re:Windows... by Progman3K · · Score: 5, Insightful

      When I first started programming, I dreamed of owning a Mac.
      I couldn't afford one, so I got a PC and learned about programming DOS.

      When Windows came around, I bristled when people would tell me "It's just a fad, a toy"

      When first being exposed to linux, I told others "It's just a toy" and laughed that it had so much ground to make up to be anything like Windows.

      When I switched to linux, I realized that it was Windows and the pre-OSX Mac that were toys.

      I suppose I'll be saying the same thing again some day...

      --
      I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
    2. Re:Windows... by westlake · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Was a toy, still is a toy, and always will be a toy.

      The geek has had about twenty years now to topple Windows as a desktop OS --- with damn little to show for it.

      Windows in all its incarnations a modern, very capable, OS and it is past time the geek stopped pretending otherwise,

    3. Re:Windows... by geoskd · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The geek has had about twenty years now to topple Windows as a desktop OS --- with damn little to show for it.

      Thats because toppling windows cant be done with a technical solution. Doing so requires a sales and marketing solution, which requires things that computer geeks are not good at, nor desire to be good at.

      Microsoft got windows where it is by being good at the business side of selling software. It had little to do with the quality of their product, and much to do with their ability to create vendor lock in, and then de facto standards. Remember: Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.

      --
      I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
  2. They laughed at Columbus.... by DerekLyons · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They laughed at Columbus - but they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

    1. Re:They laughed at Columbus.... by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They laughed at Columbus - but they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

      They were both stupid, silly, and lucky.

      Columbus made several mistakes; such as miscalculating the size of the Earth without checking with existing sources; not finishing his trek across across Panama, which would have revealed the Atlantic (disproving his India theory); and being a crappy island governor, lacking people skills and sliding into wacky religious rants.

      The boundary between "stupid" and "brave" is perhaps a blurry one.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  3. Dear manishs, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is not news, this does not matter, this is not thought-provoking.

    This is some suit's banal blog-spam.

    Leave it on medium.com where it belongs, along with the other shite

  4. [citation needed] by bigHairyDog · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This article is just a list of game-changing technologies coupled to unsourced assertions that these were derided as toys when they were first introduced.

    I don't recall a widespread opinion that color monitors, sound cards, digital cameras, wireless networking or AI were "toys" when first introduced. If anything, I recall and endless stream of over-hyped articles about how they heralded the second coming of Christ.

    --

    foo mane padme hum

  5. Not reciprocal ... by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Some things which have been game changers have been dismissed as toys. Just because your shit was dismissed as being a toy doesn't make it a game changer either.

    All that shit Microsoft said was a game changer but nobody gave a damn about? Not game changers.

    The only thing which differentiates the two is reality of what has actually happened. But the history of people saying "this will revolutionize the world", or "in 5 years we'll all be doing X" -- well, the pundits seem to have a far worse track record of telling us what will happen than what won't.

    How many of us have spent decades seeing the stuff the pundits and futurists said would change our lives, only to have them fizzle out into nothing?

    If we stamped 100% of all ideas as "toy" or "garbage", I bet we'd be right 80% of the time. People suck at predicting the future.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    1. Re:Not reciprocal ... by Jawnn · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yep. I can sum that up in one word, "Segway".

    2. Re:Not reciprocal ... by tnk1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, being labelled a "toy" is not a predictor of future success. Indeed, being labelled a toy means there is little immediate application for it.

      On the other hand, applications do appear which turn toys into game changers. So, it makes sense to evaluate toy-like creations for how readily they can be repurposed for something interesting.

      Tabletop 3D printing? Toy. However, it is very clear how tabletop assembly of components can be extremely useful, if you can get around the challenges with the current iteration.

      So, toys with a roadmap of improvements and applications ahead of them are probably worth looking at.

    3. Re:Not reciprocal ... by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, strangely the author of TFA actually says "It can be said that being labeled a toy is necessary, but not sufficient, to become the next big thing."

      I mean, that's a completely unsubstantiated and meaningless claim.

      It's like the entire article is intended to make the bullshit argument that being labelled as a toy is a strong indicator you're onto something.

      Being labelled a toy is neither necessary nor sufficient to become the next big thing. The entire article is drivel.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  6. Re:yeah! like 3d tv!!! by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    and some things labelled as game changers turn out to be of little use, some things that are game changers are recognized as such, and some things nobody expects to be a difference maker becomes disruptive.

    We need submissions to cover all of these scenarios.

  7. Re:3D printers by tnk1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, that's not really true. There are already industrial 3D printing machines.

    Now as for "tabletop" 3D printing? It is a toy at the moment, but it wouldn't be hard to see how the idea could become something very important under the right circumstances.