Rise of the Device | Hacker News Reader

Rise of the Device

softholmsyndrome.com

17 pointsunimpressive3 comments

I agree with a lot of the text, but the solution offered is ridiculous.

Problem: general-purpose computers are too difficult for users.

Answer: publish a lengthy manual explaining how to use computers.

Seriously? Everyone on here has a hundred tales of users not reading help text, error messages, prompts, documentation, or literally anything else.

The problem with GPC and the problem with users is the same, in a way: humans are incredibly f*ing lazy.

Users won't read what they don't absolutely need to. Programmers won't build an actually intuitive UI (often involves significant effort and interaction with designers and users) when a CRUD form does the job (ie, modifies the data correctly).

I honestly think a better alternative would be a series of videos or something, but to a certain extent this isn't helpful -- who would watch?

School computer literacy would be a good thing to teach. Rather than these "learn to code" initiatives, how about "learn computing" initiatives? That seems more useful and relevant than trying to shove programming down everyone's throats.

It's not a general solution. That solution is only for the minority of motivated people who aren't 'incredibly effing lazy'. Also that was one component of what I wrote and it seems weird to pick on it, considering that most of the solutions offered were technical. Not to mention that right now the manual doesn't even exist, I'm told that lots of people did in fact read the manuals that came with their Commodore 64's.

I would also argue that Windows is partially to blame on the error messages front. I know when I used XP it would be completely libertine about giving me totally useless error messages. In fact it would give me error messages in hex. I learned as many other people learned to just click through an error message the moment I saw one, because the expected value of reading was too low.

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