Is it a tragedy to be niche? Being truly niche means you are
interested in something that you can't explain to people outside.
If you could explain it, the niche would be absorbed into the
mainstream.
If your niche happens to be something the mainstream thinks "old"
does this make your niche depressive? There are times something
old is preserved in a niche to be later used for the good of the
mainstream.
Does your niche have to be technologically progressive in order
to have value? It seems that there is no technological
conservatism that can be seen positive nowadays, but I think
this is because mainstream is not really for progress. It is
for progress that turns to profit. If there was money in
conserving old tech, it would have a nicer spin and marketing.
Think monastaries in the middle ages. They were not "progressive"
but they did pack all the Creco-Roman knowledge they could
(within the limits of their Christian frame) and delivered it up
to when it could be unpacked in a more favourable time. They also
invented a bunch of philosphy under their theological pursuits,
which might have been the key to getting enlightenment up from
the ground later on. I am definitely not an expert on this, but
it seems to me that they were a key niche that turned the course
of history.
