Personal change is difficult. I like my old comfy chair.  A new chair must be broken in. Uncomfortable!

But the new chair does stuff.  New stuff.  It has automatic, adjustable features.  It has memory foam,  a heating pad, and hot and cold cup holders. And a remote control with 27 buttons which can control room temperature, the TV, and maybe, even, other people.

I like the old “simple” form, too.  I like to do things which don’t require much thinking.  I just sit down, fill in one box after another.  And for only $129.95, I bought advanced software which pre-filled many, many boxes for me.  I practically don’t need to think any more!  It’s wonderful!

Resistance to change can be a benefit.  It can be called “normal” to resist change.  It’s inherent in our human sense. Resistance can mean survival.  On the other hand, resisting change can be dangerous.  Dealing with new predator animals in old ways can be dangerous.  And even old predators can learn new ways to give their prey a false sense of safety.

Resistance can come from the outside. For our primal society, change was a great threat.  The enemy wants to come over and attack your nice safe village.  You resist.  But you might have to make changes in the village’s defenses to prevent changes forced on you from the outside.

Resistance can come from inside, too.  It can be a survival mechanism, laziness, or just plain apathy.  The underlying cause of resistance is always fear.  Fear of losing what you’ve got, or not getting what you want.  Strong resistance can come from pure habit.  Familiar things and actions become routine and simply take no thought, and any challenge disrupts that routine. It generates fear of change, whether it’s conscious or unconscious (one example is bias issues).

A complex society has several means — internal and organizational — to force compliance.  “Resistance is futile.”  It comprises several aspects:

• Human habit;
• Financial security;
• Legal requirements;
• Performance expectations;
• The desire to belong, not different.

When resistance to change is embedded in a practice, in habits, in group acceptance, in performance evaluation, in financial costs, insurance, and “established” education requirements, and in the law – stagnation is assured.  Assured.

This happened to “appraisal”– stagnation and obsolescence.  But not to other forms of valuation, such as AVMs and “value acceptance,” where user exceptions are not subject to the fees, the requirements, the licensing threats, education, nor any costs of regulatory compliance.

So there it is.  A conflict between the old and the new.  The comfortable/safe versus the better/faster/more efficient.

Your question:  which path is best in the face of fast-changing technology?