patrick.net

In the same vein:
“Many of todays problems are a result of yesterday’s solutions.”

Thomas Sowell

ZipperTits says

New column from Thomas Sowell

Holy cow, he's 92 and still writing!

ZipperTits says

Doubt he uses a computer, for example.

Of course he does. They've been around for a solid 40 years.

richwicks says

ZipperTits says

Doubt he uses a computer, for example.

Of course he does. They've been around for a solid 40 years.

Mr Sowell could likely school you on the Osborne.

Stage one thinking

Not a Luddite
https://www.dispatch.com/story/opinion/cartoons/2016/01/05/thomas-sowell-commentary-modern-technology/23353331007/

Engineers who design computerized products and services seem to have an almost fanatical determination to avoid using plain English. It is understandable when complicated processes require complicated operations. But when the very simplest things are designed with needless complications or murky instructions, that is something else.

For example, like all sorts of other devices, computers and computerized products and services have to be turned on and off. And everybody knows what the words on and off mean. But how often have you seen a computer or a computerized product or service that used the words on or off?

These simple and obvious words are avoided like the plague on many electronic devices — and this is symptomatic of a mindset that creates bigger problems with other operations. It is as if using words that everybody understands is beneath the dignity of a high-tech product.

Often power is substituted for on and all sorts of words or symbols are substituted for off. A laptop computer of mine had an unidentified symbol on the screen, and only after you clicked on that symbol did another symbol appear, with some words indicating where you could turn the computer off.

Designers of many electronic products do not condescend to use words at all. There is just an array of symbols or buttons that you can either guess what they mean or else dig into a thick book of instructions and search for explanations, much like a pioneer trying to find his way in the wilderness.

My cell phone is a classic example. It does not have a single word blemishing its gleaming surface, except for the name of the manufacturer and the name of the phone company. There is ample room for words like on or off but nothing so pedestrian is allowed to upset the design.

For people who spend hours every day talking on their cell phone, no doubt it is easy enough to remember how to turn it on and off. But, those of us who have a life to live, and work to do, cannot spend our time yakking it up with all and sundry. We may keep a cell phone on hand just for emergencies — and months can go by without using it, or a year or more in my case.

But when there is an emergency, that is no time to have to dig into an instruction booklet, in order to do something as simple as making a phone call. Nor are these instruction booklets always models of clarity. Too often they reflect the same mindset as the devices they describe. Plain and simple words are avoided whenever there is some fancy, murky or esoteric word that can be used instead.

All sorts of things are computerized these days, and the same preference for murkiness often prevails in their design.

After I bought a minivan, everything seemed to go well until I found myself running out of gas. After pulling into a filling station, I wanted to open the cover of the fuel tank — and saw nothing among the forest of anonymous control buttons and levers that would open the fuel tank.

There was nothing to do but get out the 300-page instruction book. However, nothing in the table of contents or the index had any such pedestrian word as fuel or gas. Eventually — and it seemed like an eternity at the time — I finally stumbled across something in the instruction book that revealed the secret identity of the lever that opened the fuel tank.

There was ample space on the lever for 4 letters for fuel or 3 letters for gas.

There is a certain newspaper whose outstanding editorials I read every day, usually on my iPad in the morning, since I don’t get the paper edition until evening. At one time, it was equally simple to find the editorials in either edition. In the paper edition, I just opened the editorial page, and on the iPad, I simply clicked on the word editorial and the editorials appeared. But then electronic “improvement” reared its ugly head.

In the new electronic version, all kinds of items are grouped under all kinds of titles — none of these titles including editorials. After plowing through a long list of items, I discovered the new alias for editorials. It was Issues and Insights.

I wish someone would issue some insights to engineers designing computerized products and services.

Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

Onvacation says

For people who spend hours every day talking on their cell phone, no doubt it is easy enough to remember how to turn it on and off. But, those of us who have a life to live, and work to do, cannot spend our time yakking it up with all and sundry. We may keep a cell phone on hand just for emergencies — and months can go by without using it, or a year or more in my case.

Why would anybody have a cell phone, pay a monthly bill for it, and only use in once ever couple of months?

Onvacation says

Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

Oh, apparently somebody who is 92 and still has money to burn.

He's living in the past, nearly nobody has a cell phone AND a land line. They have one or the other. He just doesn't realize this.

I've not had a land line in 30 years. I had to have a cell phone, so what was the point of having a land line?

In 2000, Skype was able to make free phone calls all over the United States, during that time, I didn't bother with a phone at all, I just used skype and logged in wherever I was at.

I'm actually considering getting rid of my phone again. I mean, I will have a phone, but no monthly payments, I'll just use wifi. I tend to do that in telegram and google voice anyhow.

I doubt I'll make it to Sowell's age, but if I do, there will be no concept of a "phone" at that point, at least as we have it now.

We really should get rid of them. Call somebody on Telegram/Skype/Google Voice/Whatever and compare the sound quality of that to a phone call. The phones are using ANCIENT technology from the 1980s. uLaw is OK for voice, but it's hardly as nice as just about anything else. People being born today will be looking at "phones" as being antiquated technology in just 20 years - like a 20 year old looks at a CRT television screen. It "works" but, why use that when what we have is so much better?

HeadSet says

richwicks says

ZipperTits says

Doubt he uses a computer, for example.

Of course he does. They've been around for a solid 40 years.

Mr Sowell could likely school you on the Osborne.

The Osborne computer? I'm sure he could!

I've never used one, and I've never even seen one or fired up a simulator of one.

I know people that know NOTHING about computers that own one.

richwicks says

I've not had a land line in 30 years. I had to have a cell phone, so what was the point of having a land line?

Same as me. The taxes on landlines were more than the cost of the service. Fuck them!

The man is catching on to cellphones, though. Planned obsolescence is getting vicious - as little as 2-3 years. At least landline phones could function perfectly fine for decades.

stereotomy says

richwicks says

I've not had a land line in 30 years. I had to have a cell phone, so what was the point of having a land line?

Same as me. The taxes on landlines were more than the cost of the service. Fuck them!

The man is catching on to cellphones, though. Planned obsolescence is getting vicious - as little as 2-3 years. At least landline phones could function perfectly fine for decades.

The planned obsolescence is coming to an end. They're going to keep pushing it, but we are rapidly approaching the point where we cannot improve anything and there will be a company that will step up and just provide a stock machine which you're going to use until it stops functioning.

We're so close now. I'm working on a machine that's around 7 or 8 years old. It's almost certainly more powerful than your machine that you're using now. I'll be able to use this until it stops working.

richwicks says

I'm actually considering getting rid of my phone again. I mean, I will have a phone, but no monthly payments, I'll just use wifi.

I would love to do that, but the catch there is getting driving directions, or getting contacted when you are en route to some event.

I did use to drive without phone directions, and actually kind of like paper maps. But the ability to tell people you're running late or for them to tell you something is cancelled or the location has been changed is pretty important.

richwicks says

He's living in the past, nearly nobody has a cell phone AND a land line.

Landline is bundled (whether you use it or not) with DSL and (most) fiber service.

Often power is substituted for on and all sorts of words or symbols are substituted for off.

This bothers me to no end. Icons with symbols on them that I have no idea what they refer to. I have to click and see what the result is and then commit that to memory instead of reading a simple word.

I get that they ship this same software to every country on Earth and don't want to have to translate words to every language, but they're doing that with the manuals anyways, and locales have been a thing with computers for over 30 years now, so it's not like it's much more effort for these billion dollar corporations to do.

I remember telling my daughter to hit the button with the "3 lines on it". And she says "oh, you mean the hamburger button?" I thought she was joking, but no, apparently that's what it's called.

It's kind of like learning Chinese. You just have to memorize all the symbols. I much prefer the alphabetic system.

A Chinese friend once asked me why the dictionary has pronunciations separate from spellings. His point was that we could just write with the pronunciations as given in the dictionary instead of inconsistent English spellings. He didn't want to memorize all the spellings, lol.

I replied that the varying spellings give you some additional info, like the difference between they're, their, and there. But he had a point for English, anyway. German, Spanish, and Italian spelling are pretty much phonetic.

ZipperTits says

Ceffer says

This guy is really genius in abstract thinking.

Patrick says

I would absolutely vote for Thomas Sowell as well.

He would not run if nominated and he would not serve if elected. He's a wise man.

Onvacation says

not run if nominated and he would not serve if elected

Anybody know who I was paraphrasing above?

Wow. Espousing facts and common sense is "owning the Libs."

cisTits says

richwicks says

He's living in the past, nearly nobody has a cell phone AND a land line. They have one or the other. He just doesn't realize this.

I do.

I said NEARLY nobody, some do. My parents do, they are in their 80's.

cisTits says

I use the number when I have to provide one on a firm. Spam callers hit that instead of either of our cell phones.

Well, it's only 5 bucks a month or so.

My parents have theirs because it's easier to have both my mom and dad on the line at the same time, and they ran a business off that number for a long time. It's not really a phone line either, it's a cell line that connects to standard phones. It's kind of neat in a way, when the power goes down, it's got a battery backup and will continue to run for several days - so it acts as a lifeline. That being said, it's a bit buggy.

I also have a land line. The wife wanted it because she wanted something that would work when the power went out. Oddly enough, my daughter bought a rotary phone at an antique shop, I plugged it in and it worked - even calling someone using that dial. I am surprised that touch tone copper still supports the old rotary system.

For "centuries?" I wonder if meant "for decades."

Sowell new book out:



https://a.co/d/1YpRjWu

PumpingRedheads says

Is this true? Is there some documented history of this?

GNL says

Is this true? Is there some documented history of this?

@GNL Yes, it's true. Easy to look up.

GNL says

Is this true? Is there some documented history of this?

Arab slaver/pirates terrorized shipping in the Mediterranean for hundreds of years, stealing cargo and selling crew and passengers into slavery. They raided coastal cities in Italy etc. kidnapping entire villages. The numbers over centuries was in the millions.