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Re: Size of market

On Thu, Sep 21, 2000 at 11:44:12PM -0500, James Purchase wrote:
> Robert Ricketts remarks about not being interested in a lot of high tech is
> very "typical", and also very O.K. and acceptable.

I don't know if I buy this. Most people are not interested in high
tech? Maybe, maybe not. Read on.

(Is it "OK and acceptable"? Of course.)

> I think that most
> hobbyists would feel much more comfortable with the low tech
> approach ...

I'm not convinced that this is true. 

> ... that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and require lots of upkeep. 

BINGO. I think you've hit on the REAL reason why there *might* not be
much interest in high-tech. Or put another way, if a high-tech system
was cheap and didn't require alot of fiddlin', I think alot more
people would pursue that path. (duh!) 

I don't think it's the high in 'high-tech' that scares people off,
it's the high in 'high-cost'.

> I love technology, but this IS a hobby.....

Hmmm. I like technology, and that is why IT IS a part of my hobby!

> I was able to grow beautiful Crypts under 2X60W incandescent light bulbs in
> a 15 gallon steel framed aquarium 30 years ago and I knew nothing about
> fertilization or technology.

That's terrific. Really. I wish I could have done it back then when I
tried. But let me ask you this - which is the larger group, the people
who grew beautiful plants "under 2X60W incandescent light bulbs in a
15 gallon steel framed aquarium" with no knowledge of fertilization or
technology, or the people who had tanks full of brown mush ' "under
2X60W incandescent light bulbs in a 15 gallon steel framed aquarium"
with no knowledge fertilization or technology'?

For years (in my youth) I failed miserably trying to grow plants. I
set up 10-20 gallon tanks under flourescent lights with no knowledge
of fertilization or technology. Brown mush, over and over again.

Then a few years ago I set up a high-tech Dupla tank ... with very
little knowledge of fertilization or technology. Plug wire A into slot
B, adjust controller for pH P, put drops X in every day, tablets Y in
at water changes, etc, etc. Follow the recipe, read George's posts,
trust that it will work.

And the results were W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L. I was hooked.

THEN I went out and began to learn about fertilization and everything
else I could about the system I had set up. Now I know alot more
(really, George!) and have more freedom to experiment and even go
'low-tech' if I so choose. With success.

There are many, many paths to a nice plant tank. Human nature being
what it is, we have a tendency to think that the path that got us to
where we're at is The One True Path.

It just ain't so. Others can take our path and fail, or take the path
we failed on and have terrific success (have you heard the stories
about the Dupla tank *failures*?). And to me thats one of the things
that makes the hobby so interesting.

dan
-- 
Dan Resler                            email: dresler at vcu_edu
Dept. of Mathematical Sciences          
Virginia Commonwealth University           
Richmond, VA 23284-2014 USA