Every technologist have heard the buzzwords Cutting Edge and Bleeding Edge.
This is the choice presented when selecting technology for mission critical objective. It's important that the technology selected not only meets the goals but is tried and tested fully. This is true for the complex organizations that cannot afford to fail, cannot use beta products or the versions of the product which are not yet fully matured with all the major defects fixed.
On the other hand, sometimes organizations wants the technology that ahead of it's time even if all the bugs are not removed fully removed. Military weapons and warplanes are good examples for adopting to technologies which are not yet fully matured but can gain significant competitive advantage.
Metaphorically speaking, the tip of the knife is a bleeding edge and the better part of the knife that does most of the cutting is called cutting edge.
Simply put, cutting edge describes the state of the art technology that is a step ahead of its competitors, it's new but has provides sense of reliability, robustness and desirability.
Smart phones, Demand forecasting, Analytics, Blockchain are few of the great examples of the cutting edge technologies
What is Bleeding edge technology?
Bleeding edge refers to the technology that is newer but untested, extreme and riskier although conceptually works. Every cutting edge technology was once a bleeding edge technology.
Computer vision, Humanoid robots, driverless cars, some of the open source codes are all examples of bleeding edge technology.
Which one is better?
Answer to this question depends on many factors. With ever increasing competition, organizations are willing to take more risks, innovate and lead the market. The risk is higher with bleeding edge but the reward could be even higher.
First electric vehicle, first generation smart phones, first ever technologies were all once bleeding edge technologies until they became cutting edge.
On the other hand, cutting edge technology offers fully proven newer technology that meets the organizations mission critical objectives with less risk of failing.
These choices could vary even within organization across multiple departments depending on the risk apatite and the objective.
