I've always disagreed with Jobs over the filesystem thing. There's just a minimum level of knowledge a computer user needs to use the damn thing, and file systems are really fundamental to that. I've never seen an abstraction that worked well enough to replace the file system as we know it, so abstractions stay welded to particular apps. Then you have a bunch of domain specific abstractions replacing a common system that was never broken.
I've worked some service jobs, at a FedEx computer center and a University computer lab. I've seen several poor souls who couldn't for the life of them use a pointing device OR keyboard. Far more common is people who can't grasp the idea of usernames and passwords; and I mean really can't understand the difference.
"Why does it have to be so hard?" is the question. Not for hard concepts, but for every concept. People offer to pay me to write their email and school papers, so they don't have to fight with Word and the whole save/load idea (not to mention glacial slow typing). Maybe this person could be served by some ultra-simple software, negating the need for new skills. I really feel this is a disservice to them. In the case of a student, this all but guarantees they are dead in the water career wise, even if they somehow eek through school.
I think people should just learn about files, they are fundamental to computer use. In the far future, when we have Star Trek style voice driven computers, most people will utterly fail to use them. "Computer, email? No I mean the one I sent. Why can't you just find it?!? There was a picture". Anyone who thinks natural language is clear and intuitive should be sentenced to two years labor in a public computer lab or call center.
100% agreed on voice control and natural language. Regarding learning the fundamentals of computers vs. dumbing down the system, I fear that no one knows the right answer, and that there may not even be a right answer. There are arguments to made for both approaches and there's no one-size-fits-all sweet spot for that design decision.
I have my own opinions on it but I'm pretty sure I'm wrong too. I think this is one of those things where a bunch of well-intentioned people implement a bunch of different designs over the next few decades, and it just sort of converges on something even though every design leading up to it was fundamentally wrong in some sense, or went to far in one direction.
Thanks for the laugh, I love your rendition of a person trying to use a voice interface. I totally agree. Personally, I'm hoping for something a little finer-grained as a filesystem replacement, bound up with undo and live remote collaboration, with everything embeddable in everything else... an experience generally centered around data, with apps as a wrapper. It's been discussed for years, but I can't recall how it's usually refered to.
> Far more common is people who can't grasp the idea of usernames and passwords; and I mean really can't understand the difference.
Consider that these people may have never used a computer system where their "user name" is addressable in any way. To them, the user name and password are just two pieces of information that they need to give the computer.
I've always disagreed with Jobs over the filesystem thing. There's just a minimum level of knowledge a computer user needs to use the damn thing, and file systems are really fundamental to that. I've never seen an abstraction that worked well enough to replace the file system as we know it, so abstractions stay welded to particular apps. Then you have a bunch of domain specific abstractions replacing a common system that was never broken.
I've worked some service jobs, at a FedEx computer center and a University computer lab. I've seen several poor souls who couldn't for the life of them use a pointing device OR keyboard. Far more common is people who can't grasp the idea of usernames and passwords; and I mean really can't understand the difference.
"Why does it have to be so hard?" is the question. Not for hard concepts, but for every concept. People offer to pay me to write their email and school papers, so they don't have to fight with Word and the whole save/load idea (not to mention glacial slow typing). Maybe this person could be served by some ultra-simple software, negating the need for new skills. I really feel this is a disservice to them. In the case of a student, this all but guarantees they are dead in the water career wise, even if they somehow eek through school.
I think people should just learn about files, they are fundamental to computer use. In the far future, when we have Star Trek style voice driven computers, most people will utterly fail to use them. "Computer, email? No I mean the one I sent. Why can't you just find it?!? There was a picture". Anyone who thinks natural language is clear and intuitive should be sentenced to two years labor in a public computer lab or call center.