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Fully agreed. A former employer once decided to empower non-technical users to design their own integrations using zapier. It was fine until someone wrote an a

Fully agreed. A former employer once decided to empower non-technical users to design their own integrations using zapier. It was fine until someone wrote an action that changed a cell on a spreadsheet, which triggered another action that, itself, triggered the original action. A more software literate user would likely have noticed the infinite loop. That was not a fun week. And anyway, this specific case was all to keep two calendars in sync, for which there are simpler and more reliable solutions. Even this awareness, of knowing when to look for something instead of making it yourself, is part of software literacy. It also strikes me that the hyperfocus on UX that we've seen in the past, say, 20 years, has systematically removed users' ability to gain software literacy the way it was mostly done in the past: by tinkering. Current young users are mostly clueless about the workings of their apps, since their attention is so well held by apps' prescribed interactions.

lifeisstillgood 5y ago
Agreed - I mean I grew up on a couple of Sinclair's. You literally started in a command line. You needed to load up the distracting game from tape. Magazines had print outs to type in (that was less cool but at least you had he point) Damn I need to start those coding clubs with my kids ... it's like growing up in a chefs house who just orders take out cos he is too tired after a days work. poor kids
- routerl 5y ago
  Even the tired chef can still raise their kids with a healthy respect for food and cooking. By all means, order takeout every night if you can afford it, but take that as an opportunity for thoughtful critique: "maybe this meal was too salty because it was counterbalancing the sweetness of the sauce, or maybe the meat was rank and so it was oversalted". Don't beat yourself up :) Just be thoughtful and expressive with your kids, and they'll find their own way around software. Just like you did ;)

lifeisstillgood 5y ago

Agreed - I mean I grew up on a couple of Sinclair's. You literally started in a command line. You needed to load up the distracting game from tape. Magazines had print outs to type in (that was less cool but at least you had he point) Damn I need to start those coding clubs with my kids ... it's like growing up in a chefs house who just orders take out cos he is too tired after a days work. poor kids

routerl 5y ago
Even the tired chef can still raise their kids with a healthy respect for food and cooking. By all means, order takeout every night if you can afford it, but take that as an opportunity for thoughtful critique: "maybe this meal was too salty because it was counterbalancing the sweetness of the sauce, or maybe the meat was rank and so it was oversalted". Don't beat yourself up :) Just be thoughtful and expressive with your kids, and they'll find their own way around software. Just like you did ;)