4 ms·

Many non-technical users assume blame for slowness and clunkiness. So many times I've heard self-blame when helping out family. "I shouldn't have so many pictur

Many non-technical users assume blame for slowness and clunkiness. So many times I've heard self-blame when helping out family. "I shouldn't have so many pictures on my desktop" (there are 8 pictures). "I just can't figure out these phones" phone is dark patterning or has hidden functionality six menu items deep and behind a swipe/long press. "I never should have let it update, it's never been the same" - a forced update.

sumtechguy 3y ago
I have heard that gem for about 2 decades now. When the reality is more cpu/memory usually cleared things up. In the old times a good defrag did not hurt either. People blame themselves when a lot of the time it is rubish software/hardware. Then you have the other side of that coin. The yes clickers. If it asks a question just answer it however you need to do for whatever it is you wanted to work. Surprising number of dark patterns on that gem... Then they hand it to you and expect a miracle in 5 mins. Sorry this is the first time I have every seen something like this it may take me a few mins to figure out what is wrong before I can even begin to fix it.
- wott 3y ago
  > Then they hand it to you and expect a miracle in 5 mins. Sorry this is the first time I have every seen something like this it may take me a few mins to figure out what is wrong before I can even begin to fix it. Oh yeah, like when I have to fix the smartphones of people who have been using them for years while I do not own or use a smartphone. I will fix it, but I've got to learn how to launch/exit an application first ;-) Many people (hi mum!) are surprised that you may take a few minutes to calmly observe, probe, assess, read and think a bit before engaging in the actual fixing. It never occurred to them that one may do something else than clicking, more or less randomly and as fast as possible, when something shows up. And do not worry about your example altering their future behaviour, it will unshakeably go on as it always went :-)
andrepd 3y ago
Oh the "too many pictures" thing is a favourite of my older relatives. They think it must be "weighing it down" or something and they have to delete pictures to make it go faster.
- nneonneo 3y ago
  On the flip side, I recently visited a local tourist attraction, where a visitor asked me to take a photo for him - and then promptly had to spend 2 minutes deleting files on his phone because he’d literally run out of storage space and his phone wouldn’t let him take another photo. Bit of an awkward moment!
grishka 3y ago
My parent comment is based on real events. A relative did actually install an antivirus and a bunch of other crapware on her Android phone. The thing was so agonizingly slow I just didn't understand how she used it at all. But that phone ran an Android version from before Google started seriously cracking down on apps running background services without restrictions. Modern Android is pretty robust in this regard — with a few exceptions, an app can't run in the background without showing a notification ("foreground service" is how the API calls it). There wasn't much self-blame. She just assumes that technology is like that, complicated, unreliable, slow, and full of magic. It's nice when it works, but not a huge loss when it doesn't. She would also indefinitely quietly put up with things not working until someone asks and finds out, then I'd fix it.

sumtechguy 3y ago

I have heard that gem for about 2 decades now. When the reality is more cpu/memory usually cleared things up. In the old times a good defrag did not hurt either. People blame themselves when a lot of the time it is rubish software/hardware. Then you have the other side of that coin. The yes clickers. If it asks a question just answer it however you need to do for whatever it is you wanted to work. Surprising number of dark patterns on that gem... Then they hand it to you and expect a miracle in 5 mins. Sorry this is the first time I have every seen something like this it may take me a few mins to figure out what is wrong before I can even begin to fix it.

wott 3y ago
> Then they hand it to you and expect a miracle in 5 mins. Sorry this is the first time I have every seen something like this it may take me a few mins to figure out what is wrong before I can even begin to fix it. Oh yeah, like when I have to fix the smartphones of people who have been using them for years while I do not own or use a smartphone. I will fix it, but I've got to learn how to launch/exit an application first ;-) Many people (hi mum!) are surprised that you may take a few minutes to calmly observe, probe, assess, read and think a bit before engaging in the actual fixing. It never occurred to them that one may do something else than clicking, more or less randomly and as fast as possible, when something shows up. And do not worry about your example altering their future behaviour, it will unshakeably go on as it always went :-)

andrepd 3y ago

Oh the "too many pictures" thing is a favourite of my older relatives. They think it must be "weighing it down" or something and they have to delete pictures to make it go faster.

nneonneo 3y ago
On the flip side, I recently visited a local tourist attraction, where a visitor asked me to take a photo for him - and then promptly had to spend 2 minutes deleting files on his phone because he’d literally run out of storage space and his phone wouldn’t let him take another photo. Bit of an awkward moment!

grishka 3y ago

My parent comment is based on real events. A relative did actually install an antivirus and a bunch of other crapware on her Android phone. The thing was so agonizingly slow I just didn't understand how she used it at all. But that phone ran an Android version from before Google started seriously cracking down on apps running background services without restrictions. Modern Android is pretty robust in this regard — with a few exceptions, an app can't run in the background without showing a notification ("foreground service" is how the API calls it). There wasn't much self-blame. She just assumes that technology is like that, complicated, unreliable, slow, and full of magic. It's nice when it works, but not a huge loss when it doesn't. She would also indefinitely quietly put up with things not working until someone asks and finds out, then I'd fix it.