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Comment by pc86 | Hacker News Reader

> and I just know the day will come when I haven't a damned clue how any of this works any more

I don't think this is a foregone conclusion, and it's easy to say this and sort of throw your hands up and go "oh well, woe is me" but it's kind of a cop out, no?

I have family in their 90's who can navigate whatever tech you put in front of them, because they think it's important to figure things out when they get stuck. My father can barely turn his phone on because at the slightest frustration he gives up and waits for someone to "fix it" for him. Certainly different folks have different aptitudes, but choice and working through things plays an exceedingly large role.

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> I don't think this is a foregone conclusion, and it's easy to say this and sort of throw your hands up and go "oh well, woe is me" but it's kind of a cop out, no?

The problem is that as we get older, we tend to value our time differently. Learning a new interface just isn't as important to us as spending that time doing something enjoyable.

Imagine if car companies randomly update the way you drive a car overnight every 7 or 8 years. You go out one day, and suddenly instead of a steering wheel and pedals you have a stick with paddles, then a few years later its changed to something that looks like an oar. Eventually you too might say to hell with it.

> The problem is that as we get older, we tend to value our time differently.

> Eventually you too might say to hell with it

I agree 100% and that's even kind of my point. You're choosing not to care about that stuff, which is fine (honestly, probably even healthy at a certain point), but it's not as if there is some biological imperative that as you age you are less able to use technology.

> You're choosing not to care about that stuff, which is fine

I think the problem is that this is only fine in a world where we aren't forced to rely on these things.

The irony is that if a vendor can't provide a consistent experience every time, why should I remain loyal to that vendor on the next update?

If Windows is going to change their user interface every other year, why would I relearn their UX-du-jour when I can just re-learn once on a Mac and be good for a few years (if not longer)?

If I use hosted Gmail and my UI changes every other month, it just tells me that I should host elsewhere where the UX is more stable.

If you abuse users long enough with this everchanging, constant-beta UI nonsense, you are just telling them to move on to a platform that isn't so unstable, where you only have to learn the UX once, not every X months.

I’d point out that it’s not necessarily those people’s problems. It’s the tech makers’ problems. Hardly any of this stuff needs to change so wildly and so often.

The somewhat recent FaceTime updates have befuddled even my brother and I. And there’s zero reason for any of the changes. They were just changes, not improvements, and were probably even regressions.

I am typically able to poke around and figure out why something broke so I can fix the dependencies. And I can search online to figure out where some feature I depend on was moved to, or what extension I need to re-enable it. But I nevertheless resent this kind of mandatory administrative overhead that comes with relying on computers.

On the flip side, I enjoy learning new techniques, languages, and approaches to advance my craft.

The difference is that the former is dictated by developers and required on a periodic basis just to tread water, whereas the latter is self-directed and helps me become more capable.

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