I initially gave my two girls an old desktop computer with a linux on it. They started to use it before I showed them how and they started figuring stuff out without me and soon I was sitting riveted in the background watching them discover things and trying to learn about computer UIs and work out how they thought. Here's an old blog post about it: http://williamedwardscoder.tumblr.com/post/19500788060/my-te... - I…
> Its sad but its true and I wish I knew what to do about it. For us that have already been spoiled by modern computing, we need to be shown what useful stuff that we can do by learning about computers (obviously we would need to be on a relatively open modern computer). If most people are satisfied with whatever gets them through the more-or-less intuitive GUIs that lets them watch some videos, do they really need t…
Say someone watched a lot of different streams. Show them how they can do it in VLC from one place. Show them enough that the utility of using VLC outweights using whatever method they used previously. Then, give them some time till usage of that tool becomes a habit. Then show them how to use the VLC command line options to record and convert streams so they can download them onto say their phone. Gently suggest "There's a rabit hole here, and it's filled with fun". Then give them some time to tinker around, see what they can do. Once they outgrow these shoes, when they're running out of cool addons they can install or when there's something that's just not in there yet, you can start to teach them how to write their own additions.
Now this is just a single example, but i think it illustrates the point. You want to help them slowly build momentum and a need for better tools. Most people are cocconed in a comfortable level of software usage, and they belive that their tools are sufficient, and learning more isn't going to be worth the returns in regards to effort. If you manage to sucessfully change those beliefs, their entire modus operandi regarding computers will change.
Now what tool and which lesson will get that started differs from person to person. For some it's learning VBA scripting for work, for other people it might be using Autohotkey to create macros or even learning some keyboard shortcuts ("Wait, alt-tab switches windows? That is so neat!"). Luckily, about everything that is commonly used has some kind of handy add on that extends functionality, say Reddit and RES, or getting that Junior Junior Dev to move from notepad to notepad++ and then after a good while to vim or emacs.