The concept of the 'uncanny valley' may be relevant here. (For those unfamiliar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncann

The concept of the 'uncanny valley' may be relevant here. (For those unfamiliar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley) Here's my unexamined hypothesis: Objects in programming are unintuitive because they aspire to resemble real-world objects, but inevitably fall short. When you're thinking about some abstract programming feature, your brain knows it's meant to be thinking abstractly. But when you think about an object, your brain can slip into an uneasy DMZ between thinking about abstractions and thinking about real-world objects. In other words, the problem isn't that objects aren't similar enough to real-world objects—it's that they're too similar without being identical.