When the automobile was first released, people referred to them as horseless carriages. The driver would sit at the same height as on a carriage, even though there was no horse to see over.
New technology has far broader implications than an initial implementation suggests. Florent Crivello proposes that every new technology goes through this “valley of mismatch”:
It’s becoming more widespread, but people are still using it under the logic of the old paradigm
Software, the Tough Tomato Principle, and the Great Weirdening of the World
There used to be huge printed directories of local businesses (Yellow Pages). Innovators carried the same idea to the internet (Yahoo). It took a while to discover the full information indexing potential of computers (Google).
What valleys of mismatch do you see around you? There may be some Tortoises crawling through them as we speak.
Also published on Medium.