Whatever existed before you were fifteen is natural, whatever arrives before you are thirty-five is exciting, and whatever comes after is against the natural order.
Adams wrote it in 1999 about the internet. It predicts that resistance to any technology tracks the objector's age at its arrival rather than anything about the technology.
In practice
- A partner who joined before email treats the shared inbox as an intrusion; the associate who arrived after Slack treats email as an archaic ritual.
- Someone who happily banks by phone finds a colleague's use of a payment app faintly reckless.