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Some days I think it's learned helplessness, some days I think it is inborn helplessness. I myself always searched for customization, starting with toys I diss

Some days I think it's learned helplessness, some days I think it is inborn helplessness. I myself always searched for customization, starting with toys I dissembled and put together in a way I liked. Whenever I went to the toy store I looked for screws and not glue. To my first computers, I loved DOS and when it went away for Windows GUI I took to the registry and then searched for something else and found Linux. Tinkering is my destination and I am never happy with what I have. This drive is the way I am built, I think, and no matter what anybody would want me to do I simply can not. I must have things my way. There's the opposite kind of people, who just want something that works right out of the box and find any tweaking to be a distraction from getting shit done. They are the majority and products are geared towards them because the market for tinkerers is too small for the economies of scale. I used to blame companies but now I just think they make what they can sell. And they must sell to people who actually hate computers and technology, they just like the products of it.

sseagull 5y ago
It always depends on the product. I have a hypothesis that almost everyone is a "power user" of something, but that something varies from person to person. For me, I am a power user of computers and technology, but I couldn't care less about my car and just want it to get me places. Other people are the opposite, and love tinkering with their cars. Or maybe they are a power user of carpentry tools, while others (like me) just need a basic drill. I think one thing that worries me is that there are markets that cater to power users in other areas (cars, tools) but the way software is going, almost all software is being stripped down and power being taken away from all users since the non-power-user base is so large. This is especially true with mobile technology, but it is creeping into desktops/laptops as well.
- trabant00 5y ago
  The enthusiast car users are suffering the same thing for the same reasons. You can see the age of the modified cars - most are 20 years old or more.

sseagull 5y ago

It always depends on the product. I have a hypothesis that almost everyone is a "power user" of something, but that something varies from person to person. For me, I am a power user of computers and technology, but I couldn't care less about my car and just want it to get me places. Other people are the opposite, and love tinkering with their cars. Or maybe they are a power user of carpentry tools, while others (like me) just need a basic drill. I think one thing that worries me is that there are markets that cater to power users in other areas (cars, tools) but the way software is going, almost all software is being stripped down and power being taken away from all users since the non-power-user base is so large. This is especially true with mobile technology, but it is creeping into desktops/laptops as well.

trabant00 5y ago
The enthusiast car users are suffering the same thing for the same reasons. You can see the age of the modified cars - most are 20 years old or more.