Comment by RiderOfGiraffes | Hacker News Reader

Comment by RiderOfGiraffes | Hacker News Reader

RiderOfGiraffes

So, let me see if I understand this.

more and more, produces of programs are hiding the details, making it easier for people to just get on with things and solve their problems, without having to worry about the details of how it happens, and the machinery underneath.

Then others, no doubt technical people, go and interview the users in order to show just how ignorant they all are.

Did I get that right?

If you want to make computers and services easy to use, you don't want people to be able to answer these questions. You want people to find your service, use it, and remain completely unaware of the technology.

Or am I wrong?

Agreed, Technology should be like a sewage treatment facility. In that, you know it treats your water supply. But you don't have to be aware of the interact refinement process and engineering splendour that has gone into it.

You've just reminded of the Tom Lehrer quotation:

  > Life is like a sewer ...
  > what you get out of it
  >    depends on what you put into it.

In software we try to break this. We try to allow people to get a lot out of the technology without necessarily investing much effort into understanding or learning about it. In this sense we are trying to make software unlike a sewer.

Hmm. I'm sure someone with a good sense of humor and a gift for writing could make a really funny routine out of this.

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