Editor’s note: You can listen to my conversation with Brian Magnusson by clicking on the Soundcloud link above.

In the latest Down in the Weeds podcast, we visit with Brian Magnusson, vice president of technology solutions at Lindsay Corp., on a topic we haven't yet discussed on the podcast: technology adoption.

"People always look at technology adoption, and they think that's a West Coast, Silicon Valley term, and we're studying the adoption of the new iPhone, or electric vehicle or self-driving cars," Magnusson says. "The reality is the study of the adoption of technology has its origins in the 1920s and 1930s. It was the study of the adoption of hybrid seed in a small community in Iowa that kicked off the study of the adoption of technology.

“Agriculture adoption of technology is what has started that study almost 100 years ago now. That same study and the adoption curve that technology followed has kind of held true for the past 100 years as other technologies have come out in different industries,” he says.

"Generally, the pace of adoption is what tends to change," Magnusson adds. "I think if you look at agriculture, in particular, the adoption of hybrid seeds back in the '20s and '30s took about 10 years in that community — which is actually pretty fast to go from nobody was using hybrid seed to almost 100% adoption of hybrid seed. That's because the results were really tangible."