Comment Computers are just tool, dammit (Score 1) 416
I think the real issue with the original essay is that it misses the fundamental point: Computers are just a tool, dammit.
This is what the annotations seemed to be getting at, but I thought it was important enough to just come out and say it.
Just about everyone who uses a computer is using it to accomplish some other task, the computer is just a tool to that end. The less you have to actually think about using the tool, the better the tool is.
Programmers and systems administrators are examples of users (and I'm sure there are many others) where using the computer is almost an end in itself, and for that reason they prefer an interface that makes the tool itself painfully obvious. In the same way, I'm sure car engineers prefer to not have any body work when perfecting a transmission.
A simplified interface is always a good thing, it makes simple things easy, and complex things possible. And making complex things possible is really the key, no programmer could ever foresee what interesting uses a new technology will be put to, it is only once the complexity it out of the way, once the barrier to entry has been lowered does someone else find some new, unexpected and societal shaking use of a technology.
And that's what computers and all technology should really be about.
This is what the annotations seemed to be getting at, but I thought it was important enough to just come out and say it.
Just about everyone who uses a computer is using it to accomplish some other task, the computer is just a tool to that end. The less you have to actually think about using the tool, the better the tool is.
Programmers and systems administrators are examples of users (and I'm sure there are many others) where using the computer is almost an end in itself, and for that reason they prefer an interface that makes the tool itself painfully obvious. In the same way, I'm sure car engineers prefer to not have any body work when perfecting a transmission.
A simplified interface is always a good thing, it makes simple things easy, and complex things possible. And making complex things possible is really the key, no programmer could ever foresee what interesting uses a new technology will be put to, it is only once the complexity it out of the way, once the barrier to entry has been lowered does someone else find some new, unexpected and societal shaking use of a technology.
And that's what computers and all technology should really be about.
