Live data from Hacker News

People Aren’t Dumb, the World Is Hard

freakonomics.com

451–453 of 453 posts

Re: People Aren’t Dumb, the World Is Hard

#451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeh but what would the mechanic think if I didn't know the keys had to be in the ignition? Such are the level of questions you field at First level tech support.

You also get those kinds of questions at a shop. Stuff like "where's my seat warmer?", "How do I turn off the windshield wipers" and "why does my window go up all the way when I just touch the button" are all questions I was asked when I worked as a mechanic. And if they are coming to my shop to get those answers, then it's my job to help them. Hopefully come tax time when I need to talk to that accountant he wont la…

"why does my window go up all the way when I just touch the button"

hmmm, in many cars the window dongle has two states. Half pull moves the window only as long as it's pulled, full pull makes "the window go up all the way" even after releasing the dongle... and it might depend on whether the keys are inserted and whether the doors are open. Took me some time to figure it out in my car.

Re: People Aren’t Dumb, the World Is Hard

#452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You also get those kinds of questions at a shop. Stuff like "where's my seat warmer?", "How do I turn off the windshield wipers" and "why does my window go up all the way when I just touch the button" are all questions I was asked when I worked as a mechanic. And if they are coming to my shop to get those answers, then it's my job to help them. Hopefully come tax time when I need to talk to that accountant he wont la…

"why does my window go up all the way when I just touch the button" hmmm, in many cars the window dongle has two states. Half pull moves the window only as long as it's pulled, full pull makes "the window go up all the way" even after releasing the dongle... and it might depend on whether the keys are inserted and whether the doors are open. Took me some time to figure it out in my car.

Bingo! However this guy had owned his last Mercedes for almost 20 years and had a million little questions like this about new features.

Really smart dude, but just needed some help with his new car.

Re: People Aren’t Dumb, the World Is Hard

#453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being stuck in the 70's isn't that bad, many avantgarde things from that era still have to make it to mainstream adoption.

I watched a presentation on YouTube that Christopher Alexander did in 1996, talking about work he did in the 70s and it continued to amaze me at its relevance today. +1 to you for realizing there are still a lot of good, under appreciated ideas out there and that technology actually moves super slow.

Computer tech folks have this stronger than healthy equation of new == good, old is wrong, needing replacement.

Just because we do something doesn't make a better idea than ideas we had in the past that are not being used. There are lots of dead great ideas.

Post reply on HN