This week I saw an article at Ars Technica that noted in 2025 that electrical vehicle sales had increased 28% in the US. That's quite a level of growth in adoption of this technology, especially given how set in their ways the US can be and how often these transition away from ICE vehicles has been politicized.

I've had a Tesla for a little over 3 years and I think it's the best and most fun car I've over owned. The technology and convenience are amazing, and I still enjoy driving the car around. For the most part I don't have range anxiety, though I recently skipped using it on a weekend trip. The car has proven to be very inexpensive to operate and I wouldn't hesitate to purchase another EV.

Apparently lots of other people feel the same, though not everyone. About 75% of new vehicles sold are still ICE vehicles, which I completely understand. Not everyone has access to regular charging at home and the cost of these vehicles, while only slightly more than ICE ones, is still much higher to start. That hasn't stopped many people from evaluating and choosing to purchase a car that runs on battery technology. However, plenty of people just don't want to adopt new technology.

I see the same thing in the tech industry. GenAI has been quite the disrupter the last few years, but many people don't trust models and don't want to try to use them. I've also seen many people who blindly trust this new technology, which can be even worse.

I've seen the same type of attitude in the past with DevOps, PowerShell, NoSQL and other technologies. Many people are slow to adopt new technology, for a variety of reasons. It might be they aren't sure the technology really offers any improvement, which is understandable. After all, if something new doesn't actually provide significant benefits, is it worth an investment? After all the investment is a cost and there are likely some downsides.

There are other people who are resistant to any change or unmotivated to bother, preferring to stick with what they know and are comfortable with using. I don't quite understand this view, as it's entirely possible we originally learned a poor way of doing things. It's also likely that as technology changes, there are improvements made from our learnings in the industry. Certainly doctors, mechanical engineers, architects, lawyers, and more adopt new practices because their professions evolve and move in new ways, so why should technology professionals be different?

I'd like to think that the reason many people don't bother to learn new (or improve existing)  skills or adopt new tools is that they don't have time. We're all under pressure to get work done, and often without any planning for our various administrative work and meetings, let alone time to invest in ourselves. However, I will say that finding a way to carve out time to read, experiment, and practice skills has helped me improve my own career prospects, as well as helped me convince employers to match my investment with their own time, resources, and funding.