The Bleeding Edge Isn't Cheap

I've been playing with the VisionPro, and here's the thing nobody says out loud: the hard part of being a tech leader is being on the bleeding edge. Sometimes that's not cheap.

But it's worth it.

A tech leader can't judge a technology they haven't lived in. Reading about a product is not the same as using it. You can watch every review and read every spec sheet, and you still won't know whether it matters until you've put it on and lived with it for a few days.

The bleeding edge is expensive — in money and in time. And some of it is wasted. You buy the thing, and it doesn't click, or it's not ready, or you're the wrong person for it. That's not a mistake. It's the cost of being on the frontier.

That's the job, not a perk. The cost of being wrong is part of the cost of being useful.

But there's a judgment to it: knowing when the bleeding edge is worth your own money, and when it's a distraction. Not every new thing is worth buying. The skill is the triage — knowing which frontier deserves your time and which one you can watch from a distance.

The field-notes version is on WanderingCTO.

Think this argument fits your event? Tell me about the room — the calendar is selective.