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Perceptions of computer maintenance. Your perception | V Making toast[--------------------------------

Perceptions of computer maintenance. Your perception | V Making toast[-----------------------------------------]Brain Surgery ^ Your fathers perception | Working with computers is more like making toast than doing brain surgery, but many people think the opposite and popular culture tends to reinforce this notion. Many people are understandably afraid. The key to helping people learn to use their own computers is to reverse this perception and give them the courage to try. Once they realize that its possible, they will quickly warm to the idea. Edit: I chose brain surgery and toast because of their qualitative difference, not quantitative. Its easy to learn to make toast and the cost of error is cheap and easy to undo, its very hard to learn to operate on brains and the cost of mistakes are mortal. Most people can learn to make toast, most people can't learn to do brain surgery. Most people erroneously believe that they just can't learn to use their computers and so don't try.

netcan 17y ago
There is another aspect to it. You can experimentally learn to make toast.
jacobolus 17y ago
I think you underestimate both the complexity and possible downsides of dealing with computers. Computers can be learned, but it takes hundreds or thousands of hours to master them. Making toast requires putting pre-sliced pieces of bread in a toaster and pressing one button. If you screw up your 50 page MS word document and it gets corrupted and lost, you're shit out of luck, out potentially weeks of typing. If you burn some toast, it costs a few cents to fix, and maybe 2 extra minutes.
- noonespecial 17y ago
  So learn to save before the 50 page doc is on the line. Try a 3 line this is a test and master it. Don't wait to learn to make toast until you're about to serve poached egg to Donald Trump either.
  - netcan 17y ago
    I'm finding that I sigh a lot reading HN lately. It's seems completely obvious that you are talking about the fact that you can burn toast without anyone dying.
    - noonespecial 17y ago
      I find that metaphors on HN have to have really sharp edges or you have to spend a few follow ups on clarification. I'm not yet particularly good at it but this is a very good place to practice. :)
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
  - jacobolus 17y ago
    Listen, this is surely true. But that's irrelevant to the countless people who have learned that sometimes their computers do frustrating shit that seems beyond their control ("what the hell do you mean the article I just made sure to save every 5 minutes for the last week is 'corrupted'? Blargh!!") and by consequence think of them as both fickle and difficult-to-trust-or-experiment-with machines. Just about everyone I know, tech savvy or not, has numerous computer horror stories. I don't know anyone who failed serving Trump some toast. (There are also cooking nightmares, to be sure, which is why I personally am not rushing out to cook a turkey, and will stick with my stir fry, pasta, and fried eggs. Some food preparation seems difficult and fraught with peril from this newbie's perspective.)

netcan 17y ago

There is another aspect to it. You can experimentally learn to make toast.

jacobolus 17y ago

I think you underestimate both the complexity and possible downsides of dealing with computers. Computers can be learned, but it takes hundreds or thousands of hours to master them. Making toast requires putting pre-sliced pieces of bread in a toaster and pressing one button. If you screw up your 50 page MS word document and it gets corrupted and lost, you're shit out of luck, out potentially weeks of typing. If you burn some toast, it costs a few cents to fix, and maybe 2 extra minutes.

noonespecial 17y ago
So learn to save before the 50 page doc is on the line. Try a 3 line this is a test and master it. Don't wait to learn to make toast until you're about to serve poached egg to Donald Trump either.
- netcan 17y ago
  I'm finding that I sigh a lot reading HN lately. It's seems completely obvious that you are talking about the fact that you can burn toast without anyone dying.
  - noonespecial 17y ago
    I find that metaphors on HN have to have really sharp edges or you have to spend a few follow ups on clarification. I'm not yet particularly good at it but this is a very good place to practice. :)
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- jacobolus 17y ago
  Listen, this is surely true. But that's irrelevant to the countless people who have learned that sometimes their computers do frustrating shit that seems beyond their control ("what the hell do you mean the article I just made sure to save every 5 minutes for the last week is 'corrupted'? Blargh!!") and by consequence think of them as both fickle and difficult-to-trust-or-experiment-with machines. Just about everyone I know, tech savvy or not, has numerous computer horror stories. I don't know anyone who failed serving Trump some toast. (There are also cooking nightmares, to be sure, which is why I personally am not rushing out to cook a turkey, and will stick with my stir fry, pasta, and fried eggs. Some food preparation seems difficult and fraught with peril from this newbie's perspective.)