HL3: Professor Freeman
ineffable
joined 6 months ago
Only 90s cats will get this
Nothing I said was critical of anyone, any set of skills, any profession. I'm glad that you have specialist skills, everyone does because no-one can know everything
I was responding to a particular question about technology, and how non-techies approach it. I explained in another comment that this complexity in technology is fundamentally different from many other fields of everyday experience
If the industrial fan stops working, they call you, and somewhere between the power point and the air they want to move is the problem you can fix and diagnose
If someone can't see their cat photos, it could be anywhere from their device to their network, their ISP to the server, the programs on that server, the other server that holds the photos... Like with the fan they know the power is generally ok because the lights didn't go out, but from that point you actually need some conceptual model of the complexity to even know who to call
"It looks like the second cutting board has grown legs. Any ideas?"
The first sentence uses a sarcastic metaphor that indicates the correct placement is known but the item is not to be found there
The second sentence expresses an interest in knowing what others can tell the speaker about this situation - maybe not quite discontent, but definitely interest in it being located
I agree, but also computers break differently. Using a computer is just like other everyday activities like driving a car, until something goes wrong
Imagine if you broke down, but you didn't know if it was 'the car' (call a mechanic), or the road, or the traffic lights...
Tech people presume that normal people think about how technology works
They don't even try to conceptualise how something on their phone gets there from the internet or 'the cloud' - when things stop working they don't think about the fact that their an app on their phone is using a network connection to a router, which distributes an internet service that connects them to a server, that is running a program, on which they have an authenticated account...
They wouldn't even know where to begin with troubleshooting, it's just 'broken' and they get frustrated
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance begins with a discussion on this very theme, before it gets weird (weird and good)
... I award you zero points, and may god have mercy on your soul
Semantic satiation
Sorry, I just knew I'd seen this pattern a lot, so I searched and dropped in the first examples I found