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1. Embed this notice
   Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 00:15:51 JST Paul Cantrell

   RE: https://indieweb.social/@jaredwhite/116465986868807844

   There’s a good case for this

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 00:25:13 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     I periodically think about the hype around the Segway, how luminary types were over the moon for it in private demos but then the general public decided it was uncool, and think maybe actually the luminaries had it right this time and it’s the public that biffed it.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 00:27:03 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     (I also wonder how much social countermarketing petrochem slipped in to kill it. If that story’s known, it’s not known to me.)

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 00:28:35 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • I AM BANKSY ☕ / 🗑‍🔥

     @xinit
     I mean, I remember that and…what if it should’ve, actually??

   • Embed this notice
     I AM BANKSY ☕ / 🗑‍🔥 (xinit@mastodon.coffee)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 00:28:37 JST I AM BANKSY ☕ / 🗑‍🔥

     in reply to

     @inthehands
     It'll change the future of urban design!

   • Embed this notice
     Nicovel0 🍉 (nicovel0@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 00:30:17 JST Nicovel0 🍉

     in reply to

     @inthehands look at how popular electric scooters and bicycles are though: this story is far from over

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 00:30:17 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Nicovel0 🍉

     @Nicovel0

     This is what I’m saying! Was it just 25 years ahead of its time? Or was it at just the right time, and we delayed the future by 25 years because we’re dumbasses?

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 00:46:31 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Faraiwe

     @faraiwe

     But per the posts above: look at micromobility, the current rise of scooters etc.

     What if “douchy” was not an innate trait of the product, but something that a juvenile social consensus assigned to it?

     What if that consensus was in part manufactured?

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     Faraiwe (faraiwe@mstdn.social)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 00:46:32 JST Faraiwe

     in reply to

     @inthehands hm

     Postulate: Segways were douchy. 117% hype. The POGO stick of the 00s. Immediately marked someone as an utter, irrecoverable dork.

   • Embed this notice
     vriesk (Jan Srz) (vriesk@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 00:49:08 JST vriesk (Jan Srz)

     in reply to

     @inthehands they were way too expensive and the width made then much less practical.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 00:51:13 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • vriesk (Jan Srz)

     @vriesk https://hachyderm.io/@inthehands/116466130920906169

   • Embed this notice
     Daniel Lakeland (dlakelan@mastodon.sdf.org)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 01:27:06 JST Daniel Lakeland

     in reply to

     • tom jennings

     @tomjennings
     At the time, toys for the rich yeah. These days we have lots of segway like devices, theyre inexpensive because of batteries and motors coming way down in price theyre smaller, and you see people riding them around college campuses and to and from public transport and things. so the execution on segways was early and clunky but the basic idea of an electric actively stabilized transport device is fine

     @inthehands

   • Embed this notice
     Daniel Lakeland (dlakelan@mastodon.sdf.org)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 01:27:08 JST Daniel Lakeland

     in reply to

     @inthehands

     I think everyone was wrong on this one. The segway was ok, better than the public gave it credit for, but it was never gonna be a world changing technology. I think the public backlash was against the billionaires telling us what the fuck to do. It came out before the media collapse and the rise of social media and the rise of effective Russian propaganda that taught the billionaires how to do their own propaganda.

   • Embed this notice
     tom jennings (tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 01:27:08 JST tom jennings

     in reply to

     • Daniel Lakeland

     @dlakelan

     Segway? A classic solution in search of s problem, and emblematic of one of tech's social problems.

     The technology itself was at the time quite amazing. And most tech folk stopped there.

     It was a social disaster. Its position in the world was something like enhanced pedestrian, not streetable. They took up more room in ped space than a wheelchair, but their users were well off abled nerds.

     Segway gave nothing to people with mobiity issues. We gladly give up abled convenience to support folks in wheelchairs etc (most of us anyway), but Segways were toys for the already privileged demanding even moreaccommodation.

     Technically clever gadgets should not take priority of peoples daily needs. We need systems thinking not toys for the rich.

     Look at the tiny niche they live in now; mall and airport security guard mobility.

     @inthehands

     Paul Cantrell repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 02:02:14 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     A lot of replies accurately enumerate all of the very specific problems with the Segway at the time of release, and…

     Yes, I get it, I’m old enough to remember! It was not at all ready for prime time! It was a flawed and expensive product!

     …at time of release. That’s all true, and not my point. I’m not asking for a release post-mortem. Instead…

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 02:05:53 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     …I’m asking us to pause all of that entrenched reaction, and think about why our reaction was:

     “What a bad product! How douchy! Ha ha!”

     …instead of what was in hindsight probably a much better reaction:

     “Oh, what a good idea for a product direction! All-electric human-sized transportation…huh, that might just change the world! If we can improve on this very clumsy first attempt at execution….”

   • Embed this notice
     Steve Purcell (sanityinc@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 02:06:36 JST Steve Purcell

     in reply to

     @inthehands Similar thing happened with the Sinclair C5

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 02:10:50 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     The micromobility revolution was •right there• 25 years ago, if only we’d been willing to go for it, if only we’d been able to see it. That’s…what, 15? 20? years head start on how it’s unfolded.

     That’s a head start on the current climate disaster that’s unfolding I wish we’d had. But no, we were too busy making fun of it for being nerdy.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 02:15:48 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • grechaw

     @grechaw
     That is where the thread started, yes

   • Embed this notice
     grechaw (grechaw@sfba.social)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 02:15:49 JST grechaw

     in reply to

     @inthehands meanwhile/and ebikes are a revolution going on big-time all around us

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 02:15:58 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     To be clear: the Segway as released was •not• a very good product. But it was not a worse product than, say, the Apple-1, which was also clumsy, nerdy, impractical, expensive. ($3400 in today’s money and it didn’t even have a keyboard!)

     Yet in the latter case the response was “This is the future! Let’s do this! Let’s figure it out!” And with the Segway, the response was “How mockable, nobody should ever try to build anything like this ever again!”

     A crumb went down the wrong way with micromobility in 2001, and I’m not willing to lay that entire at the feet of one product’s marketing team. We collectively screwed up.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 02:26:48 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • The Lack Thereof :v_bi:

     @lackthereof
     That’s what the thread is specifically about; scroll up

   • Embed this notice
     The Lack Thereof :v_bi: (lackthereof@beige.party)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 02:26:49 JST The Lack Thereof :v_bi:

     in reply to

     @inthehands
     But isn't it back with those little electric razor-type scooters? Same thing functionally but inline wheels.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 02:29:11 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Matthew Reinbold

     @matthew That’s where the thread started

   • Embed this notice
     Matthew Reinbold (matthew@opinuendo.com)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 02:29:16 JST Matthew Reinbold

     in reply to

     @inthehands I think e-bikes took that mantle. It does require more from the user, but wasn't a conceptual bridge too far

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 02:37:24 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Donald Ball

     @donaldball

     This may well be the case — though I do suspect that tech might have advanced faster if investors & the public believed in the applications sooner

   • Embed this notice
     Donald Ball (donaldball@triangletoot.party)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 02:37:25 JST Donald Ball

     in reply to

     @inthehands I really don’t think tepid or even vaguely hostile reactions to the Segway slowed the micromobility revolution. I think battery tech evolution and production capacity are more likely.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 02:47:46 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • AnneH

     @annehargreaves
     Yet the high injury rates from class 3 e-bikes have not slowed their adoption. And speaking of injuries…have you ever heard about cars?

   • Embed this notice
     AnneH (annehargreaves@ioc.exchange)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 02:47:47 JST AnneH

     in reply to

     @inthehands Thing was, not many people hurt themselves on the Apple.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 03:43:00 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • \u1f0a1

     @bnlandor

     > the Segeay bombed made investors skittish

     This exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about.

   • Embed this notice
     \u1f0a1 (bnlandor@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 03:43:01 JST \u1f0a1

     in reply to

     @inthehands I see the point, but I know for a fact that the specific way the Segeay bombed made investors skittish; there might have been petrochem anti-marketing involved, but I think they didn't see it as enough of a threat.

   • Embed this notice
     John McCall (rjmccall@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 04:02:41 JST John McCall

     in reply to

     @inthehands It was not right there. Technology had to improve to make the devices cheap and useful enough to be mass-market and viable for things like bike shares. There is no reason to think that that would’ve happened faster if Segways had been more popular. You’re just trying to give moral valence to your nostalgia.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 04:06:28 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • John McCall

     @rjmccall

     Your last sentence is wrong: I mocked it mercilessly at the time, and now wonder whether I should have done a better job spotting the good direction buried in the bad product.

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     John McCall (rjmccall@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 04:21:18 JST John McCall

     in reply to

     @inthehands In that case, I don’t think you need to worry. The good products were appreciated pretty quickly when they came out.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 06:03:01 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • John McCall

     @rjmccall
     I hear you. Maybe it is a lot like why the Newton wasn’t the iPhone: design and marketing aside, foundational hardware just wan’t there yet. I’m just not as willing as you to assume that it couldn’t have come sooner, and I’m more interested in trying to ask now with hindsight what our whole societal system might have overlooked at the time so that we can do a better job of spotting societally good ideas sooner in the present.