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I appreciate your perspective and I greatly value my own computer expertise. Having said that, I want to ask: what if doctors, lawyers, and engineers adopted th
by chongli 5y ago
I appreciate your perspective and I greatly value my own computer expertise. Having said that, I want to ask: what if doctors, lawyers, and engineers adopted the same mindset? Instead of translating their knowledge and recommendations into language a layperson can understand, what if these experts spoke only in their domain's technical jargon?
We would be much worse off. In order to survive, everyone would have to become a dabbler in everything and many would be unable to keep up at all. We would lose all of the efficiency gains of specialization.
So assuming we do not want everyone to have to learn a bit about medicine and law and engineering etc, why is computer knowledge different? Is a computer not merely a tool to accomplish a task? We don't expect people to learn to become a mechanic, let alone an automotive engineer, to be able to drive a car. We expect cars to be reasonably easy to drive and low maintenance, with occasional help from mechanics. Shouldn't we expect the same from computers?
- jdgoesmarching 5y agoYeah, it’s incredibly unrealistic tech-elitism to put the burden on everyone else because you can’t be bothered to simplify your design. Anyone who cares about self-hosting should not be advocating for the UX equivalent of setting VCR clocks. We can be realistic about making hosting accessible, or you can bury your head in the sand with enthusiasts as AWS becomes the entire internet. It’s already pretty obvious which approach is winning.