When art (products) imitate life (people)...

Eric von Hippel, maybe you've heard of him, is the MIT professor known for his work on "lead user" research, the phenomenon he has written about in books such as "Democratizing Innovation", that discuss how lead user customers take products and hack them to provide better functionality for themselves. People who convert their gas powered cars into electric hybrids on their own would fit into this category. At MRT, we've known Eric for a long time and have often had him speak at our events to update us on his research.

Well, it seems a particular company known as BUG Labs, which makes components that you can put together to make almost any type of gadget, is quite enamored with the prof. So much so, that they've named one of their products after him. Their "BUGvonhippel" is a new product that helps enable "hardware mashups" of their component modules.

Talk about living in the metaverse.