4 ms·

Absolutely agree on this. I've seen the entire spectrum by now: kids,who literally grew up with computers in their hands, not being able to operate simple softw

Absolutely agree on this. I've seen the entire spectrum by now: kids,who literally grew up with computers in their hands, not being able to operate simple software and people way past retirement age doing complex 'magic' on their PCs

ethbr0 6y ago
I'm not impressed by the digital native, current generations. I think a better descriptor would be "app-native" -- i.e. "I don't understand or care how anything computing works under the hood, and it'd better be tied off with a pretty bow and UI."
- cosmodisk 6y ago
  This is a topic we discussed with a colleague earlier this week: everyone's smart to click some buttons on an app,which, even a monkey with some basic training could do, but anything outside their comfort zone is a foreign language to them. Just a few days ago got asked what's the url to login to Office 365. There doesn't seem to be any willingness to think.
  - boomboomsubban 6y ago
    As someone who hasn't touched Microsoft office in a decade, what's the URL for Office 365 seems like a fair question. Isn't it competing with Google? I assume they offer an in browser client, So yes, I have no idea how things I don't use work. This isn't that I'm unwilling to think, things are more open ended.
    - cosmodisk 6y ago
      It's not the part whether one knows or doesn't know the url fascinates me: it's a professional setting, where people are quite used to solve problems much more complex than figuring out what's the url. For me it's the thought process: What's the url? I don't know.. error... error.. error. The equivalent of this is if I'd say to someone I've read a great article on Financial Times website,and they'd reply with: sorry, I can't read it,I don't know the url..
      - boomboomsubban 6y ago
        Isn't it also the kind of thing that large organizations self host? Sure they could have probably found it with a search engine, or some employee reference, but asking someone isn't a huge deal.
  - gmfawcett 6y ago
    I don't understand your example. There is such a URL (https://www.office.com/ https://www.office.com/). Or are you just suggesting that the colleague could have looked it up themselves?

ethbr0 6y ago

I'm not impressed by the digital native, current generations. I think a better descriptor would be "app-native" -- i.e. "I don't understand or care how anything computing works under the hood, and it'd better be tied off with a pretty bow and UI."

cosmodisk 6y ago
This is a topic we discussed with a colleague earlier this week: everyone's smart to click some buttons on an app,which, even a monkey with some basic training could do, but anything outside their comfort zone is a foreign language to them. Just a few days ago got asked what's the url to login to Office 365. There doesn't seem to be any willingness to think.
- boomboomsubban 6y ago
  As someone who hasn't touched Microsoft office in a decade, what's the URL for Office 365 seems like a fair question. Isn't it competing with Google? I assume they offer an in browser client, So yes, I have no idea how things I don't use work. This isn't that I'm unwilling to think, things are more open ended.
  - cosmodisk 6y ago
    It's not the part whether one knows or doesn't know the url fascinates me: it's a professional setting, where people are quite used to solve problems much more complex than figuring out what's the url. For me it's the thought process: What's the url? I don't know.. error... error.. error. The equivalent of this is if I'd say to someone I've read a great article on Financial Times website,and they'd reply with: sorry, I can't read it,I don't know the url..
    - boomboomsubban 6y ago
      Isn't it also the kind of thing that large organizations self host? Sure they could have probably found it with a search engine, or some employee reference, but asking someone isn't a huge deal.
- gmfawcett 6y ago
  I don't understand your example. There is such a URL (https://www.office.com/ https://www.office.com/). Or are you just suggesting that the colleague could have looked it up themselves?