This book examines the difficulties in marketing and selling new inventions to the mass, consumer market going back to the late 19th century. The difficulties faced by this late 19th century adult trying to master a new invention can serve as a paradigm for the case histories of early adoption that make this book-one that he was apparently inspired to write as part of the first wave of users (around 1982) of the home computer and its printer. © 2012 IEEE.