Hexagram 16: 豫

You've got a solution that actually solves the problem, and you're watching it spread because people genuinely want it. Not marketing enthusiasm—actual enthusiasm. The thing works, it's needed, and adoption is organic. Here's what this probably means: you aligned with how people actually want to work. Dave Smith and Ikutaro Kakehashi faced the synthesizer industry's fundamental dysfunction: every manufacturer used proprietary interfaces. Musicians wanted their gear to work together. Manufacturers wanted market lock-in. Smith and Kakehashi—competitors—chose to collaborate on a universal standard. Winter NAMM 1983: a Sequential Circuits Prophet-600 connected to a Roland Jupiter-6. Different manufacturers' equipment talking to each other for the first time. The response was immediate enthusiasm. MIDI succeeded through what the classical text calls 'movement along the line of least resistance.' Smith and Kakehashi didn't impose a theoretically perfect protocol. They created one that aligned with how musicians actually wanted to work, how equipment actually needed to communicate, what the technology could actually support. Thunder above earth—arousing movement meeting receptive implementation. Universal adoption followed because the standard was obviously right. The key insight: to arouse enthusiasm, you must adjust yourself to the character of those you have to lead. Your version: your technical solution must serve actual workflows, solve actual problems, fit actual constraints. The protocol that makes the difficult thing easy. The tool that fits naturally into existing practice. The API that answers the questions developers actually ask. The indicator: movement along the line of least resistance. If you're forcing adoption—evangelizing, marketing, convincing—you're probably violating this law. If people are finding your solution and spreading it themselves, you're aligned. MIDI wasn't marketed into existence. It was demonstrated once, and musicians immediately understood: this solves the problem we've had for years. You can't manufacture genuine enthusiasm. You can only create conditions for it by building things that actually solve problems people actually have, in ways that align with how they actually work. MIDI delivered on what it promised and remained true to its purpose. Forty years later, it's still how electronic instruments communicate. But the classical text includes a warning: even joyous movement can lead to evil consequences. The sixth line speaks of 'deluded enthusiasm'—when the movement becomes the point rather than the purpose it serves. Enthusiasm can become hype, can become delusion, can lose connection to the actual problem it solved. MIDI avoided this by staying focused: enable instruments to communicate. That's it. No mission creep, no feature bloat, no loss of purpose. You're seeing organic adoption because you solved the right problem the right way. Stay focused on that purpose.