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I think that's far too optimistic. Using technology is not the same as making / hacking it. Far too many people don't care.

wallflower 17y ago
True. I see people everyday on the train, using their mobile devices to fritter away time. They're consumers of technology, not producers. However, the ongoing democratization of technology(1) will make it easier to make. Or at least for them to share something. Or at least for non-technical people to do the stuff that they want. My brother-in-law had a PC for years. He got a MacBook and suddenly he was making DVDs, slideshows, editing video. Was it just the technology or was it the fact that Apple makes it easy to do things most people would like to do be able to do with their computers (the iLife software)? Why do you think YouTube became so successful? They took a really hard problem (how to allow people to upload and share a video and made it easy). "Over the span of one week two million people downloaded [Tap Tap Revenge] to their iPhone or iPod Touch devices. Something has changed. It has changed for good. Has it changed for the better? I’m not yet sure – but I am sure there’s no going back." http://kickingbear.com/blog/archives/67 http://kickingbear.com/blog/archives/67 (1) This essay by one of the coders behind Tap Tap Revenge that was posted yesterday on HN (but kinda got buried) goes more into the democratization of technology, wherein the people don't care about big software, they want Pop Software, they want to do cool stuff with their mobile devices.
alexgartrell 17y ago
I think what you're overlooking is the LOADS of kids that go off and become Mechanical Engineers, Civil Engineers, and mathematicians. Lots of people care about developing solutions to hard problems, but they just aren't exposed to technology in the same way as most of us were. I think that this is changing.

wallflower 17y ago

True. I see people everyday on the train, using their mobile devices to fritter away time. They're consumers of technology, not producers. However, the ongoing democratization of technology(1) will make it easier to make. Or at least for them to share something. Or at least for non-technical people to do the stuff that they want. My brother-in-law had a PC for years. He got a MacBook and suddenly he was making DVDs, slideshows, editing video. Was it just the technology or was it the fact that Apple makes it easy to do things most people would like to do be able to do with their computers (the iLife software)? Why do you think YouTube became so successful? They took a really hard problem (how to allow people to upload and share a video and made it easy). "Over the span of one week two million people downloaded [Tap Tap Revenge] to their iPhone or iPod Touch devices. Something has changed. It has changed for good. Has it changed for the better? I’m not yet sure – but I am sure there’s no going back." http://kickingbear.com/blog/archives/67 http://kickingbear.com/blog/archives/67 (1) This essay by one of the coders behind Tap Tap Revenge that was posted yesterday on HN (but kinda got buried) goes more into the democratization of technology, wherein the people don't care about big software, they want Pop Software, they want to do cool stuff with their mobile devices.

alexgartrell 17y ago

I think what you're overlooking is the LOADS of kids that go off and become Mechanical Engineers, Civil Engineers, and mathematicians. Lots of people care about developing solutions to hard problems, but they just aren't exposed to technology in the same way as most of us were. I think that this is changing.