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Compared to you, most people seem dumb

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Re: Compared to you, most people seem dumb

#91

Post by barrkel »

JabavuAdams wrote: post #82
pavel_lishin wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ditto for my stepdad, electrical engineer, holds more patents than I own books, and has put something on fucking Mars . Still can't get his webcam to work, and keeps every document on his desktop. It's just a matter of different knowledge domains. If you tossed me into the woods with experienced naturalists, they'd probably laugh every time I wiped with poison oak, too.

Actually, you'd probably laugh at them because they were naked.

I think you're thinking of naturists, not naturalists.

Re: Compared to you, most people seem dumb

#92

Post by elblanco »

Encosia wrote: post #21
tgriesser wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually recently had a talk with my parents about just that; how, unlike years ago, computers have gotten better to the point where nothing they can do will 'break' them, so they should feel free to click around and try to figure out what they might be looking for. Software tools like CrossLoop have also made my life a hell of a lot easier in maintaining this promise, since anytime anything goes wrong I just tell…

I think that's one of the best things about the iPad that goes relatively unheralded. It's most of a computer, but nearly impossible for a user to accidentally get into an unusable state. I bought my Dad (74) one this year, as his first "computer", and the first thing I told him was not to worry because he couldn't break it by doing the wrong thing. Now he's sending email and playing Words with Friends. It's been tra…

> It's most of a computer, but nearly impossible for a user to accidentally get into an unusable state.

Thank you for this. It seems so obvious now, but this wonderfully captures something about the iDevices I couldn't quite put my thumb on...I think I need to go and do some deep meditating on this.

Re: Compared to you, most people seem dumb

#93

Post by extension »

ivank wrote: post #75
jdietrich wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My grandma calls me up and says "I want to move my computer into the other room, will you come over and plug everything in for me?". I tell her "the plugs will only fit one way round into the correct sockets, you literally can't go wrong". She calls me back, saying that her mouse isn't working. I go over and take a look. She'd forced the USB connector on her mouse into an Ethernet socket with such force that she crac…

You've never plugged a USB cable into an Ethernet socket? Often it doesn't even take any force.

Yes, and it doesn't help that some nitwit put the ethernet port right next to the USB ports on the standard ATX layout. DURR. Probably the same guy who made USB symmetrical, thus forcing me to spend what must be a day or two of my total lifespan trying to jam the things in upside-down.

Re: Compared to you, most people seem dumb

#94

Post by chrischen »

Yesterday someone emailed me saying that they downloaded "Like.fm for Firefox" and then proceeded to ask me what the site's address was (it's Like.fm).

However cases like this are still the exception. Bad user experience design usually leads to clueless users. So it's not a matter of intelligence or technical acuity, it's all about how experienced you are with the interfaces and how well it's designed to be familiar to you. Obviously if you are the designer you're going to be more familiar than a new user. But it won't matter if you're using wormholes for your internet backbone if it's well designed even Abraham Lincoln will be able to use it.

That being said not all user interfaces should be dumbed down as much as possible. It just has to be as familiar as possible to your target user base.

Re: Compared to you, most people seem dumb

#95

Post by extension »

jrockway wrote: post #6

The underlying issue is that people are afraid to try and explore. They form a mental model of how to do something, look for something that fits into that model, and then are happy. If they guess the wrong model, though, then they are stuck forever. Skilled computer users, on the other hand, don't let a failing model bother them. They just try something else. Most people will do this for anything but computers, thoug…

People basically need to be taught that you can't break computers

This was more or less true until the internet came along. Now computers are full of booby traps and hungry wolves and the things you do on the screen actually affect the real world. It's not so much that you will break the computer, more like the other way around.

Sorry old coots, you had your chance to practice and you wasted it being stubborn. Now the real game is on and there is nothing us nephews can really do for you.

Re: Compared to you, most people seem dumb

#97

Post by pavel_lishin »

JabavuAdams wrote: post #82
pavel_lishin wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ditto for my stepdad, electrical engineer, holds more patents than I own books, and has put something on fucking Mars . Still can't get his webcam to work, and keeps every document on his desktop. It's just a matter of different knowledge domains. If you tossed me into the woods with experienced naturalists, they'd probably laugh every time I wiped with poison oak, too.

Actually, you'd probably laugh at them because they were naked.

Yeah. I'm in the middle of the woods, helpless, surrounded by a bunch of naked men and women. Obviously my first instinct is to laugh at the only people that can keep me alive. :)

Re: Compared to you, most people seem dumb

#98

Post by JabavuAdams »

barrkel wrote: post #91
JabavuAdams wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, you'd probably laugh at them because they were naked.

I think you're thinking of naturists, not naturalists.

Thank. You. I'm glad you nipped that in the butt. Could have been very embarrassing.

I'm feeling snarky because it's 11:29 PM local time, and I'm about to ditch the trial server software I had planned to use and just write the goddamn things I need in Python, and keep it all in memory, so I can actually finish my shit this week. Fuck databases, fuck socket-server middle-ware, fuck best practice dogma (except when they really matter).

Re: Compared to you, most people seem dumb

#100

Post by mkramlich »

megablast wrote: post #20
mixmax wrote: post #14

A good friend of mine recently commented that I always brought up role models that he had no idea who were, and I quoted as known and famous. The people in question were names such as Niels Bohr, Steve Jobs, Larry and Sergey, Richard Dawkins and Einstein. My first thought was to dismiss him as not very knowledgeable, but then I thought to ask him who he thought were good famous role models. He rambled off a number of…

I would be a bit worried by anyone who has not heard of Einstein. But you make a great point, and I think the article missed it. It is not that we know more, we know more about our particular areas of expertise, just as others know more about their areas of expertise. My Dad knows a lot more about airplanes than I do, because he worked on them for a number of years.

> I would be a bit worried by anyone who has not heard of Einstein.

It's all relative.

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