Comments on: Ignorance does not suit you

By: anon

anon — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 01:07:42 +0000

That I wholeheartedly agree with.

If there’s one thing a computer ‘geek’ is most passionate about, it’s about being lazy and finding ways to automate, simplify boring tasks, and become more efficient and productive.

However, that is being lazy and coming up with ingenious solutions. Not being lazy and staying clueless.

By: Notorik

Notorik — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 23:36:56 +0000

You need it to hold up your straw, duh.

By: You reap what you sow « Motho ke motho ka botho

You reap what you sow « Motho ke motho ka botho — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 22:35:04 +0000

[...] Oh yeah, and this doesn’t help matters either. Stop thinking it’s cool not to understand [...]

By: Benj1

Benj1 — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 16:58:30 +0000

So when you go to Mc D’s and order a coke you don’t notice that 90% of the space is taken up by ice ?

By: Notorik

Notorik — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:25:36 +0000

Hey, laziness is the mother of invention. How else do you explain the straw?

By: ajlec2000

ajlec2000 — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 13:22:25 +0000

Heh, yes, computers, cell phones, cameras and even cars. Lets hope Mandela doesn’t start educating them or the supply might dry up.

By: K.Mandla

K.Mandla — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 23:32:02 +0000

The Internet is propping up my German ability here, but I find it elsewhere translated as “primitive stupidity.”

By: bob_v5

bob_v5 — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 22:43:32 +0000

Sometimes I feel the same, but then I remember that most of my hardware comes from these people.

Random person — “This computers broken, you can have it.”

Me — “OK, thanks, might be able to use a few bits”

// Goes home, examines machine, 90% of the time discovers machine is not broken, performs maintenance, uses new machine with big grin on face.

The way I see it is that these people keep the big hardware company’s rolling, ensuring a constant supply of dirt cheap, (or free) reasonably good hardware for the less ignorant. I haven’t bought a mobile phone for eight years. I have NEVER bought a tv, hifi, printer, fridge, washing machine, or any number of appliances that are generally thought of as expensive. All thanks to those that choose not to think.

By: keithb

keithb — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 18:19:19 +0000

Remember everyone…

* Our beliefs are the truth.
* The truth is obvious.
* Our beliefs are based on real data.
* The data we select are the real data.

People form ‘theories-in-use’ – the term is about what people actually do in a given situation rather than what they say they do ‘espoused-theory’. Check out Chris Argyris and Donald Schon, lots on the Web.

We are all sitting on top of ‘ladders of inference’ and everyone’s ladder has a different logic.

Personally, I’m struggling with a wonderful application called puredata, and I’m taking the operating system as read for a bit while I learn the ropes.

By: Duncan Snowden

Duncan Snowden — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 16:29:25 +0000

My take on this is that the modern x86 PC, with its hundreds of interacting hardware and software components, is probably the most complicated machine you’ll ever use. It may not have the same capacity to hurt you as half a ton of steel, glass, and rubber, but it’s a vastly more complex device. It’s absurd to expect to use it at all competently without knowing at least a little about how it works.

The ignorants’ car analogy further angers me because it’s simply not true. People do know something about how their cars work. They know about the gearbox (even if they’re a bit vague about how it does what it does); they know the clutch physically disconnects the engine from the driven wheels; they know the wipers and lights are electrical and have little to do with the engine; they know the tyres are filled with air and might develop leaks. I could probably go on. Yet they seem reluctant to have even that level of knowledge about their computers.