{"id":565,"date":"2012-07-20T17:02:13","date_gmt":"2012-07-20T22:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/redmonk.com\/dberkholz\/?p=565"},"modified":"2013-04-19T21:30:23","modified_gmt":"2013-04-20T02:30:23","slug":"catalyze-developer-adoption-by-lowering-your-activation-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/dberkholz\/2012\/07\/20\/catalyze-developer-adoption-by-lowering-your-activation-energy\/","title":{"rendered":"Catalyze developer adoption by lowering your activation energy"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post on activation energy and developer adoption<\/a>, today I’m going to extend the metaphor of chemical reactions by adding the concept of catalysis<\/strong>. In chemistry, catalysts are generally thought to work by lowering the activation energy<\/strong>\u00a0(Ea<\/sub>) that creates the barrier between initial and final states. In the figure below, we’re seeing a chemical reaction proceed from left to right with the energy peaking right in the middle. In black is the standard reaction, and in red is the catalyzed reaction.<\/p>\n

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The translation to developer adoption is straightforward: When you’re passing over a barrier to entry (the peak in the middle), you need a certain energy (motivation) to do so. Catalyzing adoption means using all available tools to lower the height of this barrier — as my fellow RedMonk Stephen\u00a0has written about<\/a>\u00a0since at least 2005 — for example:<\/p>\n