> most people hit a wall figuring out what it's actually good for beyond parlor tricks.

That's what my parents thought about computers and the internet, wondering what it's actually good for beyond burning $9000 in phone bills to Zerg rush Protoss noobs.

And all the other things computers+internet could do, they could already do through other more reliable (at the time) ways.

But then it turned out that simply making mundane tasks just a little bit faster, and reducing the need to interact with strangers by just that little bit, created a new step on the staircase, a new baseline, with which to reach and do other grander things more easily.