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I would not at all agree that "today's old people aren't fluent with technology." Today's old people wrote the software your bank probably still relies on toda

I would not at all agree that "today's old people aren't fluent with technology." Today's old people wrote the software your bank probably still relies on today. In ten years, you're going to be talking about me, one of the ones who saved you from Y2K, wrote software you have likely used (if you've used Windows or Visual Studio, you've used my bits), wrote mobile phone software you might be using even today, and you better hope I was having a good day when I wrote that routine controlling the programmable logic controller in the nuke plant down the road. So in ten years old people will magically be fluent in technology? No, no more than your nephew can help set up that network because he spends all day on Facebook. Techies have always been a subset of the population, always will be. But that doesn't mean the "normals" can't use what we produce. That also doesn't mean that "produce" has anything relation to "consume". I don't know the first thing about making a movie, but I do love watching one. People drive cars without knowing what the Otto cycle is. People use microwaves without knowing how to use a compiler for the IMX6 chip driving it. People can use Facebook without knowing how to write a for loop in PHP. But it wasn't always this way. You used to have to know something about the Otto cycle to drive, or you'd burn the tops of your pistons off when you advanced the spark too much with the manual lever. You better know where in the compression cycle to start hand cranking the engine for maximum success (and minimal arm-breakage). But that's because (take your pick) the technology sucked, or simply wasn't ready for prime time. My wife and I were talking about why women didn't generally drive "back then". Manual transmissions, right? No, women drive stick just fine, ya pigs. But that's what I've heard. Reality: power steering. Anyone with a left leg and a right arm (and I have evidence that you don't even need the arm) can push a pedal and move a lever. But turning our '81 VW out of a tight parking space at low speed? Yeah, you better sack up and get a good grip on that steering wheel. Moving 4000 lbs. of steel around wasn't quite ready to be accessible to everyone. My long-winded point is that old people will be fine with technology. But here's a tip for all you up-and-comers: make sure your product is not yet-another-thing-I-have-to-fuck-with. Old people don't get technology? No, old people have a low tolerance for yak shaving. Why did VCRs flash "12:00" back in the day? A sign of technological doltishness? No, it's a sign that first sentence in "how to set the clock" is, "grab a set of trimming shears..." Fuck it, it can just flash. Your device randomly needs a reset every X number of days because you outsourced the firmware development? Fuck it, back in the box it goes. You get the idea. I can barely remember to take my pills, and you're giving me something else that needs regular attention?

beat 8y ago
THIS. The older I get, the less willing I am to waste time on yak-shaving bullshit. Make it difficult or tedious, and I'll just dump your product and go do something else with my precious time and attention.
- copperx 8y ago
  I do the same, but I do NOT think my patience has decreased. Perhaps not being able to deal with "yak shaving" is a sign of cognitive decline, but because the truth hurts, we say we don't have time for such things (e.g., I have no time to recompile a kernel! I just want a computer that works, give me a Mac!). In our youth, complexity was fun because we were able to takle it easily.
  - beat 8y ago
    I think of not wasting time on yak shaving as a sign of cognitive advancement, not cognitive decline! It's not that I can't shave yaks like I used to. It's that I realize that shaving yaks is a stupid waste of time that could be spent doing something productive or fun. Of course, if one enjoys shaving yaks, then by all means, shave away! But don't shave a yak just to prove that you can, and don't sneer at the people who don't - just because they don't shave your yak doesn't mean they can't. It means their priorities are different than yours.
  - egypturnash 8y ago
    When you were a kid, you had more time to kill. Sure, I’ll recompile this kernel a couple of times to try out some tweaks! It’ll be a nice break from marathoning this fifteen-volume fantasy series. As an adult, you’ve got a job and maybe a family and a commute and you’re the one who has to deal with bureaucracy and... who has time for needless complexity any more?
  - codetrotter 8y ago
    > Perhaps not being able to deal with "yak shaving" is a sign of cognitive decline, but because the truth hurts, we say we don't have time for such things (e.g., I have no time to recompile a kernel! I just want a computer that works, give me a Mac!). In our youth, complexity was fun because we were able to takle it easily. My first computer ran Windows XP. I was 12 years old at the time and was curious about learning how it worked. I messed around, broke the install, fixed it by using the rescue floppy. From my mistakes I learned quite a bit, as one tends to do. About 6 years later, when I started using Linux and FreeBSD, once again I messed around a lot in order to learn about these operating systems and how things worked. And once again I learned from the mistakes that I made. I have now been running Linux and FreeBSD almost exclusively for the past 10 years, and I will keep using these OSes for as long into the future as I can imagine, but... When my systems break these days, it’s a chore. Because when something broke back when I was new to these things, it was an opportunity for learning. But if I render my system unbootable due to an oversight during system upgrade for example, there is really nothing new to learn from that anymore. And that is what it boils down to for me, and why certain things made sense to spend time on before, whereas now those same things don’t. I am willing to put in a lot of hours on something that will either earn me the right amount of money, teach me something new or better yet, both, but really it was always like that — I put in the time on certain things then that I won’t today because back then I still needed to learn about that thing.

beat 8y ago

THIS. The older I get, the less willing I am to waste time on yak-shaving bullshit. Make it difficult or tedious, and I'll just dump your product and go do something else with my precious time and attention.

copperx 8y ago
I do the same, but I do NOT think my patience has decreased. Perhaps not being able to deal with "yak shaving" is a sign of cognitive decline, but because the truth hurts, we say we don't have time for such things (e.g., I have no time to recompile a kernel! I just want a computer that works, give me a Mac!). In our youth, complexity was fun because we were able to takle it easily.
- beat 8y ago
  I think of not wasting time on yak shaving as a sign of cognitive advancement, not cognitive decline! It's not that I can't shave yaks like I used to. It's that I realize that shaving yaks is a stupid waste of time that could be spent doing something productive or fun. Of course, if one enjoys shaving yaks, then by all means, shave away! But don't shave a yak just to prove that you can, and don't sneer at the people who don't - just because they don't shave your yak doesn't mean they can't. It means their priorities are different than yours.
- egypturnash 8y ago
  When you were a kid, you had more time to kill. Sure, I’ll recompile this kernel a couple of times to try out some tweaks! It’ll be a nice break from marathoning this fifteen-volume fantasy series. As an adult, you’ve got a job and maybe a family and a commute and you’re the one who has to deal with bureaucracy and... who has time for needless complexity any more?
- codetrotter 8y ago
  > Perhaps not being able to deal with "yak shaving" is a sign of cognitive decline, but because the truth hurts, we say we don't have time for such things (e.g., I have no time to recompile a kernel! I just want a computer that works, give me a Mac!). In our youth, complexity was fun because we were able to takle it easily. My first computer ran Windows XP. I was 12 years old at the time and was curious about learning how it worked. I messed around, broke the install, fixed it by using the rescue floppy. From my mistakes I learned quite a bit, as one tends to do. About 6 years later, when I started using Linux and FreeBSD, once again I messed around a lot in order to learn about these operating systems and how things worked. And once again I learned from the mistakes that I made. I have now been running Linux and FreeBSD almost exclusively for the past 10 years, and I will keep using these OSes for as long into the future as I can imagine, but... When my systems break these days, it’s a chore. Because when something broke back when I was new to these things, it was an opportunity for learning. But if I render my system unbootable due to an oversight during system upgrade for example, there is really nothing new to learn from that anymore. And that is what it boils down to for me, and why certain things made sense to spend time on before, whereas now those same things don’t. I am willing to put in a lot of hours on something that will either earn me the right amount of money, teach me something new or better yet, both, but really it was always like that — I put in the time on certain things then that I won’t today because back then I still needed to learn about that thing.