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Comment by flumpcakes | Hacker News Reader

I find this an incomprehensible position. I've used computers 25 years. I've worked professionally with them for 10+ years. I know more about the runtime and workings of a computer than any of the architects, tech leads, or principal engineers at my company. I don't know how a computing device works fully. 99% of people working in 'tech' don't. So 99% of the professionals aren't to this standard, and we expect end users to be?

What percentage of car drivers are fully qualified vehicle inspectors?

Do you know how to fully use your phone? Would you be aware if pegasus spyware was installed?

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> What percentage of car drivers are fully qualified vehicle inspectors?

AFAIK, all car drivers are required to go through specialized training, and pass through periodic skill examinations. You should not be (and are legally forbidden from) operating a car if you don't know how to use it.

> and pass through periodic skill examinations.

Not in the US, at least not anywhere I've lived. The only regular re-examination is an eyesight test. There is no skill testing after the initial license issuance, and there won't be unless the license status is fully lost - waiting too long after expiration, revocation, that sort of thing.

The only regular re-examination is an eyesight test.

And, at least in the state of WA, that "eyesight test" consists of a checkbox on a form that says, "Your eyes aren't shit, are they?". I've checked that box, and I overheard a person well past retirement age tell the same story at a restaurant. I get regular eye exams, but I don't know about the guy at the restaurant.

The last time I took a physical skills test was 40-some years ago. The last time I took a "written" test was...I don't know, ten years? And guess what? I still remember getting a question wrong on that test (despite having lived in WA for over ten years at the time), and what do you know, TIL something about WA road laws. They should test me (and everyone else) more often, and not make half the questions "how much can you drink and still safely drive?"

Oof. In the half dozen states I've lived in, it's an actual vision test. It's not a very good one and I've managed to squint my way through it to keep the corrective lenses required marker of my license...but I did have to correctly report what I saw to renew my license.

There's a difference between knowing how to use a thing and "[knowing] how [it] works fully". Don't conflate them.

>I don't know how a computing device works fully.

You don't need to know how a computing device works fully to know not to execute exe files you find lying around.

This is not how malware is delivered.

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