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Is learning how to navigate the DMV system in any US state less "heavy"? I think Medium and others contribute to the problem by perpetuating the myth that ordin

by ncphil 4y ago

Is learning how to navigate the DMV system in any US state less "heavy"? I think Medium and others contribute to the problem by perpetuating the myth that ordinary folks can't do it/ it's just too hard. How we break through that is something to think about.

mindslight 4y ago
Yes, if you just show up to the DMV they will tell you what you need to do. You only need to self-actualize and figure things out ahead of time to get things done faster than multiple iterations of going there and waiting in line. Remember, the DMV has to deal with the below average members of the public. For the topic's problem, I'd love to see some automated setup app that would take a "VPS host account", and do all of the installation/configuration to support service(s) running Free software to accomplish a high level task (eg a blog). Like a graphical NixOps with precanned configurations. You'd need to initially cut down the number of options (say VPS account must be at one of 2 hosts, domain must be at one of 2 registrars), but I think the main problem would be trying to straddle so many abstraction levels.
- brookst 4y ago
  So I’m a writer with a deep passion for tropical fruits, and I want to start a blog. How do I find your setup app, or even know that I need it?
  - mindslight 4y ago
    Yes, I agree that discovery and creating a self-perpetuating critical mass is the hardest aspect of this. Heck, I'm sure some incarnation of this app already exists, but technical people don't need it (so it's not popular here), and non-technical people don't know that they need it. Meanwhile Medium seemingly advertises their own offering on each of their customers blogs. How to overcome this? Maybe it would be enough to be in some mobile app stores with a distinctive memorable name (despite the horrible UX on mobile), and have a slowly accreting fanbase. Then every time these issues flare up someone would say 'Install LibreZooks to run your blog" in addition to all of those "just use DO and Docker" comments. People do seem to be moving to Mastodon slowly with the current happenings, but decentralized-first stuff can never match the advertising saturation of well funded surveillance companies. There's also the difficulty that many people these days aren't publishing just to publish, but they're publishing as a side hustle or hoping to get rich. So middlemen like Medium that promise to extract as much as possible and then share a cut have another leg up over "default options" like running Google ads or whatever.
brookst 4y ago
DMV is maybe not the best analogy since it’s more or less mandatory and people can’t choose to invest more time/money to do it better. How about car repair? As a car enthusiast, I think anyone who fails to invest time and energy to really understand how cars work, from cv joints to TPMS systems, is putting themselves at the mercy of repair shops that can be capricious. And financial planning, and yard care, and zoning policy, and. . . Point being, life is too complex for everyone to be an expert in everything they depend on. And we all depend on things where we’re not even expert enough to know the implicit assumptions and dependencies we’re taking on. I don’t think we can break through that. I’d love to be wrong, but I just don’t see a way for people to have deep understanding of every tool they use while still doing the stuff they want to do.
dpkirchner 4y ago
It is hard to self-host properly. Getting started can be easy with a good tutorial but securing your software and server can be difficult, and even the pros often fail. We're still all suffering the effects of unmaintained, insecure Wordpress installs over the years.

by ncphil 4y ago

mindslight 4y ago

Yes, if you just show up to the DMV they will tell you what you need to do. You only need to self-actualize and figure things out ahead of time to get things done faster than multiple iterations of going there and waiting in line. Remember, the DMV has to deal with the below average members of the public. For the topic's problem, I'd love to see some automated setup app that would take a "VPS host account", and do all of the installation/configuration to support service(s) running Free software to accomplish a high level task (eg a blog). Like a graphical NixOps with precanned configurations. You'd need to initially cut down the number of options (say VPS account must be at one of 2 hosts, domain must be at one of 2 registrars), but I think the main problem would be trying to straddle so many abstraction levels.

brookst 4y ago
So I’m a writer with a deep passion for tropical fruits, and I want to start a blog. How do I find your setup app, or even know that I need it?
- mindslight 4y ago
  Yes, I agree that discovery and creating a self-perpetuating critical mass is the hardest aspect of this. Heck, I'm sure some incarnation of this app already exists, but technical people don't need it (so it's not popular here), and non-technical people don't know that they need it. Meanwhile Medium seemingly advertises their own offering on each of their customers blogs. How to overcome this? Maybe it would be enough to be in some mobile app stores with a distinctive memorable name (despite the horrible UX on mobile), and have a slowly accreting fanbase. Then every time these issues flare up someone would say 'Install LibreZooks to run your blog" in addition to all of those "just use DO and Docker" comments. People do seem to be moving to Mastodon slowly with the current happenings, but decentralized-first stuff can never match the advertising saturation of well funded surveillance companies. There's also the difficulty that many people these days aren't publishing just to publish, but they're publishing as a side hustle or hoping to get rich. So middlemen like Medium that promise to extract as much as possible and then share a cut have another leg up over "default options" like running Google ads or whatever.

brookst 4y ago

DMV is maybe not the best analogy since it’s more or less mandatory and people can’t choose to invest more time/money to do it better. How about car repair? As a car enthusiast, I think anyone who fails to invest time and energy to really understand how cars work, from cv joints to TPMS systems, is putting themselves at the mercy of repair shops that can be capricious. And financial planning, and yard care, and zoning policy, and. . . Point being, life is too complex for everyone to be an expert in everything they depend on. And we all depend on things where we’re not even expert enough to know the implicit assumptions and dependencies we’re taking on. I don’t think we can break through that. I’d love to be wrong, but I just don’t see a way for people to have deep understanding of every tool they use while still doing the stuff they want to do.

dpkirchner 4y ago

It is hard to self-host properly. Getting started can be easy with a good tutorial but securing your software and server can be difficult, and even the pros often fail. We're still all suffering the effects of unmaintained, insecure Wordpress installs over the years.