It seems illogical to me that the most complex designs are easier with CSS alone and no tables. Pragmatically, there's no room for a multidisciplinary approach

It seems illogical to me that the most complex designs are easier with CSS alone and no tables. Pragmatically, there's no room for a multidisciplinary approach? And I must vent about the you-poor-thing defense, which was only mildly present in the article but has popped up loads of times in the discussion of the past few days. Hockey-stick learning curves are inherent, objective flaws for software interfaces, not subjective ones that don't matter once the cretin beginners have been sufficiently shamed to overcome them. Interfaces are for humans. They should make "easy things easy and hard things possible." When they don't, there is a general feeling of malaise. Steep learning curves actively foreclose productivity and decrease user enthusiasm. Let us not forget the lessons of Kathy Sierra: http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/10/getting_users_p.html http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/1... Furthermore, defending steep learning curves in general puts one in poor company and makes people wary. We've all seen people defend their sunk investments in genuinely crummy systems with a zeal which, seen from the outside, is comparable only to Stockholm syndrome.