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> Author is a jerk for the TLDR at the beginning > Sure--it's unfortunate that such a red herring was thrown into an otherwise excellent article. No, he comes

by chc 13y ago

> Author is a jerk for the TLDR at the beginning > Sure--it's unfortunate that such a red herring was thrown into an otherwise excellent article. No, he comes across as a jerk for about 75% of the entire condescending article. "I'm better at this stuff than some people and thus these people are less than me" is the overriding theme here. There is a kernel of an excellent point here — that we would benefit from better teaching computer literacy — but it's buried under miles of condescension, dismissiveness and outright animosity. Many of his "This person can't use a computer" statements are overly dismissive and imperious. "This stupid kid saw a dialog box saying he had a virus and thought it might mean he had a virus! What a numbskull!" "A teacher doesn't know off the top of her head how to set some stuff that nobody ever needs to set! How embarrassing!" It is no wonder that his point gets lost when he goes on for paragraph after paragraph deriding people and impugning their character for such silly reasons. If you want greater computer literacy, my experience is that one of the first steps is making people feel comfortable working their way around their computers. This "h4h4 n00b" attitude is counterproductive.

angersock 13y ago
First, he was coming at it from the position of being a fellow teacher, not designated IT-bro. Second, you dismiss the problems as things "nobody ever has"--guess what? Somebody had them. Third, he mostly listed examples where a cursory bout of reasoning or just a bit more experience in computers (gotten through doing something other than delegating to the mystical IT wizards) would've solved the problem. And no, he didn't say the kid was stupid or a numbskull--he said the kid didn't know how to use computers. Stop putting words into the dude's mouth.
- chc 13y ago
  > First, he was coming at it from the position of being a fellow teacher, not designated IT-bro. It's even less OK for teachers to take a condescending attitude than it is for normal people, so I'm not sure what your point is. > Second, you dismiss the problems as things "nobody ever has"--guess what? Somebody had them. Don't be obtuse. It is not conducive to good conversations. > Third, he mostly listed examples where a cursory bout of reasoning or just a bit more experience in computers (gotten through doing something other than delegating to the mystical IT wizards) would've solved the problem. Even people who have a lot of experience with computers will often not have had occasion to mess with their proxy settings. I have managed labs and offices with dozens of computers and the number of times I've needed to change the proxy settings on any machine is precisely zero. And I didn't know until pretty recently that some computers have a small, unlabeled switch that exists only to trick you into turning your Wi-Fi off on accident. That would have stumped me too, at least for a while. These are hardly fundamental failures of computer literacy. > And no, he didn't say the kid was stupid or a numbskull--he said the kid didn't know how to use computers. Stop putting words into the dude's mouth. Why? He has no problem putting words in people's mouths (e.g. "Fix my computer geek, and hurry up about it"). And unlike him, I at least have multiple people confirming that this was the impression he gave. My intent was to clarify why people are responding negatively to his tone — you seemed to think it was just the "TL;DR" portion, so I was explaining how the rest of his post sounds to many of us.
ryansan 13y ago
I agree. The vitriol through the majority of the article is exactly part of the reason people keep IT folks at arms length. I can appreciate the level of frustration, but the litany of "n00b" anecdotes is a bit absurd. The other thing that kills me is that there will always be layers of abstraction. This was especially apparent to me when he rattles off a few programming languages part way through: ...PHP, HTML, JavaScript and Haskell There's a chain (which is often two-way, I've found): The web content manager that never bothers to learn jQuery. The jQuery developer that never bothers to learn JavaScript. The JavaScript developer that never bothers to learn PHP. The PHP developer that never bothers to learn C. The C developer that never bothers to learn Assembly. I do appreciate that he actually offers solutions at the end in the form of some fairly vague calls to action, instead of whining 100% of the time. I just don't care much for the delivery. (However, you have to admit that it probably got a lot of attention as a result of the delivery...kudos for that, I suppose.)

by chc 13y ago

angersock 13y ago

First, he was coming at it from the position of being a fellow teacher, not designated IT-bro. Second, you dismiss the problems as things "nobody ever has"--guess what? Somebody had them. Third, he mostly listed examples where a cursory bout of reasoning or just a bit more experience in computers (gotten through doing something other than delegating to the mystical IT wizards) would've solved the problem. And no, he didn't say the kid was stupid or a numbskull--he said the kid didn't know how to use computers. Stop putting words into the dude's mouth.

chc 13y ago
> First, he was coming at it from the position of being a fellow teacher, not designated IT-bro. It's even less OK for teachers to take a condescending attitude than it is for normal people, so I'm not sure what your point is. > Second, you dismiss the problems as things "nobody ever has"--guess what? Somebody had them. Don't be obtuse. It is not conducive to good conversations. > Third, he mostly listed examples where a cursory bout of reasoning or just a bit more experience in computers (gotten through doing something other than delegating to the mystical IT wizards) would've solved the problem. Even people who have a lot of experience with computers will often not have had occasion to mess with their proxy settings. I have managed labs and offices with dozens of computers and the number of times I've needed to change the proxy settings on any machine is precisely zero. And I didn't know until pretty recently that some computers have a small, unlabeled switch that exists only to trick you into turning your Wi-Fi off on accident. That would have stumped me too, at least for a while. These are hardly fundamental failures of computer literacy. > And no, he didn't say the kid was stupid or a numbskull--he said the kid didn't know how to use computers. Stop putting words into the dude's mouth. Why? He has no problem putting words in people's mouths (e.g. "Fix my computer geek, and hurry up about it"). And unlike him, I at least have multiple people confirming that this was the impression he gave. My intent was to clarify why people are responding negatively to his tone — you seemed to think it was just the "TL;DR" portion, so I was explaining how the rest of his post sounds to many of us.

ryansan 13y ago

I agree. The vitriol through the majority of the article is exactly part of the reason people keep IT folks at arms length. I can appreciate the level of frustration, but the litany of "n00b" anecdotes is a bit absurd. The other thing that kills me is that there will always be layers of abstraction. This was especially apparent to me when he rattles off a few programming languages part way through: ...PHP, HTML, JavaScript and Haskell There's a chain (which is often two-way, I've found): The web content manager that never bothers to learn jQuery. The jQuery developer that never bothers to learn JavaScript. The JavaScript developer that never bothers to learn PHP. The PHP developer that never bothers to learn C. The C developer that never bothers to learn Assembly. I do appreciate that he actually offers solutions at the end in the form of some fairly vague calls to action, instead of whining 100% of the time. I just don't care much for the delivery. (However, you have to admit that it probably got a lot of attention as a result of the delivery...kudos for that, I suppose.)