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Can you elaborate on your excitement? Your username seems to imply enjoyment of, interest in these complexities while your statement seems to indicate excitemen

by dpflan 5y ago

Can you elaborate on your excitement? Your username seems to imply enjoyment of, interest in these complexities while your statement seems to indicate excitement that others are not getting exposed to these complexities. There is benefit to yourself (and the technically literate) because you/they can truly understand and change something versus be stymied (so, "employable").

cogman10 5y ago
Well, the good thing about the current software ecosystem is that end users don't need to understand access control policies in order to safely operate their devices. In otherwords, the barrier to correctly using a general computing device is MUCH lower. As someone that grew up with Win 95, this is a revolution in the way computing works. In the era I entered into computing, to use a computer really did often require at least a little knowledge of DOS or the commandline. Absolutely it required you to know how files and folders worked. Viruses were super common and super easy to catch as we started entering the internet era. So part of correctly operating a computer involved picking and maintaining the right AV software. That's a barrier that has kept people out of computing in general. Now, everyone's grandma is on facebook (for better or worse). Everyone knows how to use a search engine. Even those that don't know how to use a search engine, know how to do "Siri: What is the capital of Kansas?". Knowledge is hyper accessible. (This also exposes new epistemological issues. How can we verify something is true when it requires hours of research, even with the internet?)
jdkjs 5y ago
The fewer people who understand these complexities, the more money those who do make :)
rootsudo 5y ago
Oh, I agree, there is no excitement at the idea of more ignorant users but excitement that there was a giant blowback - instead of devices, end user computing augmenting technical experience, it instead did the opposite. It is not a benefit, but just the realization curve that the more you make things easy, it can appear to be a step forward but instead become many steps back. The whole reason I entered into this field, was because I could not get my computer to work, or that I didn't understand it - probably both, and it drove me to overcome those barriers. I was of course a kid, and the computer itself has entertained me and gave me decision paths that I would've never known possible without it. It really is sad, those experiences seem gone to the sands of time and if a device doesn't work properly, then it's not per se the customer or audience, but an user experience flaw.

by dpflan 5y ago

cogman10 5y ago

Well, the good thing about the current software ecosystem is that end users don't need to understand access control policies in order to safely operate their devices. In otherwords, the barrier to correctly using a general computing device is MUCH lower. As someone that grew up with Win 95, this is a revolution in the way computing works. In the era I entered into computing, to use a computer really did often require at least a little knowledge of DOS or the commandline. Absolutely it required you to know how files and folders worked. Viruses were super common and super easy to catch as we started entering the internet era. So part of correctly operating a computer involved picking and maintaining the right AV software. That's a barrier that has kept people out of computing in general. Now, everyone's grandma is on facebook (for better or worse). Everyone knows how to use a search engine. Even those that don't know how to use a search engine, know how to do "Siri: What is the capital of Kansas?". Knowledge is hyper accessible. (This also exposes new epistemological issues. How can we verify something is true when it requires hours of research, even with the internet?)

jdkjs 5y ago

The fewer people who understand these complexities, the more money those who do make :)

rootsudo 5y ago

Oh, I agree, there is no excitement at the idea of more ignorant users but excitement that there was a giant blowback - instead of devices, end user computing augmenting technical experience, it instead did the opposite. It is not a benefit, but just the realization curve that the more you make things easy, it can appear to be a step forward but instead become many steps back. The whole reason I entered into this field, was because I could not get my computer to work, or that I didn't understand it - probably both, and it drove me to overcome those barriers. I was of course a kid, and the computer itself has entertained me and gave me decision paths that I would've never known possible without it. It really is sad, those experiences seem gone to the sands of time and if a device doesn't work properly, then it's not per se the customer or audience, but an user experience flaw.