Jason LefkowitzFeb 23
I occasionally help an elderly neighbor get stuff done with their computer. And every single time, I walk away in incandescent rage at how hard we have made this stuff for people who have not spent their entire waking lives marinating in it
Show threadAndrew (Television Executive)Feb 23

@jalefkowit Even when we *have* spent our entire lives marinating in it, so much of modern computing is still impossible to navigate.

Youtube accounts have 4 separate "settings" sections, many of which have identically named settings, some of which control the same settings, some of which are entirely separate from one another.

Show threadJason LefkowitzFeb 23
@ajroach42 It's hard for *me*, a professional nerd who gets paid to understand this stuff. I have no idea how normal people haven't come for us with pitchforks and torches yet
Show threadsport of sacred spherical cows

@jalefkowit @ajroach42

For the same reason they haven't come for kayfabe panto politicians with pitchforks and torches. Ego-value is vested in a lifetime of this being something other people are competent at, at least are supposed to be competent at. (Cf. James Scott, Seeing Like a State.)

The complexity and confusion is embraced as proof that, absent those brief inescapable interactions with the monolithic fetish object that is "computers", as broad hand-wavy category, it's largely someone else's problem.

Heck, myself was writing poetic-satirical short stories in middle school, well before AOL was even mailing out free floppies, about how computer touchers we becoming a priestly class, the mystery of the machine serving the interests of both the touchers and those who called on them for exorcisms.

Feb 23 at 9:24pmWeb