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Not writing software, using it requires software literacy. How many people do you know that refuse to learn the software they use everyday? How many times have

Not writing software, using it requires software literacy. How many people do you know that refuse to learn the software they use everyday? How many times have you helped a friend or colleague with some problem just by googling it even when you don't really understand what they do for a living? It's not that we need everyone to create software, but it would unlock huge productivity gains if everyone stopped pasting screen shots into word. Excel might be the most important knowledge tool of our time, and almost no one knows how to use it.

andi999 5y ago
Somehown I think the literature on excel is lacking. Do you know any reference which shows 'how to use it' in your sense?
- sokoloff 5y ago
  I think learning has changed as well. It’s no longer a (traditional canonical) reference that’s most useful (though Microsoft surely has one on each version of excel) but rather “how do I formulate a search to help myself here?” Programmers have been doing GDD* for a while. Other knowledge workers will catch up or be left behind their peers. I use Excel weekly, but not daily. The last thing I remember googling in it was last week and it was (for the fiftieth time) “excel format as millions”. * Google Driven Development
- criddell 5y ago
  Software used to come with big beautiful manuals. I remember getting Borland Quattro and the box was a cube because the manuals were so thick. I think there are a lot of benefits to printed references but for me the biggest was accidentally finding something cool while looking for something else.
heurisko 5y ago
> How many times have you helped a friend or colleague with some problem just by googling it even when you don't really understand what they do for a living? I think sometimes it is also the case of knowingly what to Google for, and being able to pick out the correct answer. For example, recently I was involved in a cache issue for an android phone. One of the answers on Google was to download some sort of cache cleaning program. Of course, I knew that this was likely to be a security risk, but others would have downloaded it. People are naturally wary about this thing, so sometimes I don't mind if they'd prefer not to Google and implement a solution themselves.
- enraged_camel 5y ago
  >> I think sometimes it is also the case of knowingly what to Google for, and being able to pick out the correct answer. To me this is a part of literacy: how to know what to search for, and how to know which results are relevant.
nicbou 5y ago
This literacy is particularly important because people operate in a field fraught with coercive, user-hostile design and scammers.

andi999 5y ago

Somehown I think the literature on excel is lacking. Do you know any reference which shows 'how to use it' in your sense?

sokoloff 5y ago
I think learning has changed as well. It’s no longer a (traditional canonical) reference that’s most useful (though Microsoft surely has one on each version of excel) but rather “how do I formulate a search to help myself here?” Programmers have been doing GDD* for a while. Other knowledge workers will catch up or be left behind their peers. I use Excel weekly, but not daily. The last thing I remember googling in it was last week and it was (for the fiftieth time) “excel format as millions”. * Google Driven Development
criddell 5y ago
Software used to come with big beautiful manuals. I remember getting Borland Quattro and the box was a cube because the manuals were so thick. I think there are a lot of benefits to printed references but for me the biggest was accidentally finding something cool while looking for something else.

heurisko 5y ago

> How many times have you helped a friend or colleague with some problem just by googling it even when you don't really understand what they do for a living? I think sometimes it is also the case of knowingly what to Google for, and being able to pick out the correct answer. For example, recently I was involved in a cache issue for an android phone. One of the answers on Google was to download some sort of cache cleaning program. Of course, I knew that this was likely to be a security risk, but others would have downloaded it. People are naturally wary about this thing, so sometimes I don't mind if they'd prefer not to Google and implement a solution themselves.

enraged_camel 5y ago
>> I think sometimes it is also the case of knowingly what to Google for, and being able to pick out the correct answer. To me this is a part of literacy: how to know what to search for, and how to know which results are relevant.

nicbou 5y ago

This literacy is particularly important because people operate in a field fraught with coercive, user-hostile design and scammers.