The slow death of the power user.
"This isn’t an accident. This is the result of two decades of deliberate, calculated effort by the largest technology companies on earth to turn users into consumers, instruments into appliances, and technical literacy into a niche hobby for weirdos. They succeeded beyond their wildest expectations"
https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/the-slow-death-of-the-power-user/
@koen_hufkens I saw a neat hiring trick once: an ISP had hidden the instructions on finding the job application in DNS TXT records. Without modest DNS and a few other networking skills you didn't get to even apply.
I might have to resort to that if the "power user" situation is as bad as the article suggests. I guess I just don't hang out with the wrong people... 🤔
@TallSimon @koen_hufkens The old alt.hackers newsgroup was a little like this. You needed a moderator's assent to join and post, but there were no moderators: Everyone in there had figured out how to bypass moderation.
@TallSimon @koen_hufkens I did that at a previous job. Put a job ad into the website html and console log
Can't remember if someone applied through it, though
@koen_hufkens I've had similar thoughts. I think companies, perhaps Apple especially, pushed walk-up usability, as opposed to things you learned first. "The Missing Manual" era.
But it's not completely on them. They tapped a demand. Most people don't want to learn things, especially first. Even if it might yield higher ease of use, later.
Luckily with #FOSS and #Linux we still have the option to learn things second. Even things as ridiculous and productive as vi (and descendants).
@buckfiftyseven @koen_hufkens I think it's more about 'options' and sadly nowadays most of the tech companies are not interested in providing such options.
I remember noticing the 'rounded rectangle' in Corel Draw when no such feature was available on Adobe Illustrator somewhere around 2011 (or maybe it was the other way around) and when I later dabbled into other programs I learnt that most of them had some unique features (options)
@buckfiftyseven @koen_hufkens I run several Ubuntu servers, have been using Ubuntu for 15-20 years...
...I still hate vi with the passion of a thousand suns. I always install nano if I can.
@radioclash @koen_hufkens do you sed? Do you awk?
It's a cascade of usefulness. And I'm really sorry I thought I was too busy to learn awk until I retired.
@buckfiftyseven @koen_hufkens I have used those too, but again, it's always very complicated regex pipes.
I run several VPS Ubuntu servers, run Home Assistant on a PC running Cinnamon Ubuntu in a VM.
Still not a fan. You can do so much damage with those tools, and I have with a typo.
@radioclash @koen_hufkens it's like anything else serious. You build up from simpler rules to what you need. For my use, they not that complicated. And you test against test files.
It's not really scary, like being forced into SQL changes on a live production database.
@koen_hufkens Even with the advent of #bioinformatics, helping integrate inherent DNA hardware, providing potential curriculum proficiency; the decline has followed the path of overt #Capitalism in conditioning 'easiest path' behaviors, aligning too often with gravity = varying degrees of collapse.
And the more 'global' and powerful the concentration of this effect, the steeper the collapse/extinction(s).
Similar can be mapped to #Communism, leaving more room between for #DemocraticSocialism.
@DrHyde @koen_hufkens I think the difference is that you plateau at a different level if you were just a soft user of computers.
I've had the experience where I've seen someone making painful little edits in a GUI editor and I say let me have that, do a couple things in vi, to their amazement
Or not knowing how to reduce the size of a scanned pdf, a quick shell loop and Image Magick
You may spend your whole life doing painful little things, that individually are easy, but over a lifetime..
@DrHyde @koen_hufkens I had a sudden thought. What if you have been doing GUI editing all your life, and doing search and replace, and there has been a little check box there labeled "regex" and you've never used it?
Just imagine.
@buckfiftyseven @DrHyde @koen_hufkens regex? *Shudders*.
I know how it works. I have used it. But also I've done a lot of damage with those tools as well on an OS.
Regex on files is a VERY risky procedure, and I'd rather most people didn't know how to do that....
@buckfiftyseven @DrHyde @koen_hufkens they mostly knew what they were doing.
I deleted the /priv folder on my Mac once digging around. Did not do it any good.
@DrHyde @koen_hufkens for sure.
It's probably isn't a coincidence that "power users" try to rack up skills across disciplines, so that they can reap as many benefits as possible.
@DrHyde @koen_hufkens I would suggest there are two main differences in your example. First, you can probably wear clothes well without knowing much about them. You can even easily switch brands without knowing anything about weaving. This is not the case with, for instance, operating systems.
Second, even if you don't weave or dye, you can probably sew. Or at least have a friend who can sew well enough to repair your clothes. But most people don't have phones with changeable batteries.
@distrowatch @DrHyde "But most people don't have phones with changeable batteries."
Anymore, that's a design choice. Not in the least inspired by wanting to sell more phones.
@DrHyde @koen_hufkens Fast fashion (aka "Big Sewing") is a big problem that hurts the people working in it and our environment. It's hard to recognize something has value if you don't know how it was made.
You don't have to knowing everything about textile production or weave your own clothes... I do so because I enjoy it.
I still strongly believe we'd be better off if everyone knew how to sew a button back on or fix a small hole.
@koen_hufkens The control and extraction techniques that Apple, Google and others use are certainly true.
I have a different take on the 'loss' of power users angle. The difference between today vs 40 years ago is not the percentage of the population that is interested in learning the fine details of technology. The difference is that 40 years ago, only the technically minded people touched computers at all. Today billions of people have computers in their pockets and on their desks.
"They know files exist somewhere, in the cloud maybe, or possibly inside the app itself — the distinction isn’t clear to them and they’ve never needed it to be."
I hate software that stores the product of your work in some "library" somewhere that only it can retrieve and you are lucky if you can figure out where on the hard drive it actually is stored.
@koen_hufkens I'm not finished.
As you describe these people I'm reminded of the person who uses AI to track her hours because her boss likes to rip her off.
I said, "Be careful because AI isn't good for that kind of thing and will probably get it wrong a lot."
Her response instantly changed my perspective: "Oh yeah it does!!!" and then just rattled on about it.
I've been struggling with that ever since.
@koen_hufkens Haven't read the article (yet!), but this excerpt is quite convincing.
FYI to all, this has a name. It's called "deskilling." It's also how we've been trained to buy pancake *mix* even though it's three ingredients and the whole point is they're very very easy to make.
It serves capital to slowly deskill us all to the point where we're dependent on them for *everything* rather than being able to make and fix things for ourselves and FOR EACH OTHER bc none of us is an island.
@ireneista @OrionKidder @koen_hufkens that's true of literally anything
You can add vanilla to anything to make it more delicious, even to vanilla itself!
@ireneista @OrionKidder @koen_hufkens
That's where it starts. "Oh, just a little vanilla", you tell yourself. But you can't stop. You need more. MORE. Eventually vanilla becomes normal. Bland. You need the harder stuff. Before you know it you're adding... cinnamon.
@OrionKidder @koen_hufkens It's not *just* deskilling to increase dependence. Pancake mix USED to have just three ingredients. Now it has at least 7, some of which add bulk, prevent caking, and act as preservatives because of the need to package and ship it to you. So not only do you lose skills, you get a deliberately worse product with a higher profit margin for them.
Ed: Which, I forgot to add, creates a differentiated product which is amenable to marketing, increasing demand and profits.
@wyatt_h_knott @OrionKidder @koen_hufkens
What crazy-ass pancake recipes are y'all making? Pancakes have milk, eggs, melted butter, baking powder, flour, salt and sugar.
Also, I agree with your point but let's up our pancake game, friends. They are a gift to humanity. Let's show some respect!
😜
@johnzajac Have you looked at the ingredients list on a box of pancake mix lately?
Also, pancakes are just a vehicle for syrup. SYRUP is the gift to humanity.
@wyatt_h_knott @OrionKidder @koen_hufkens
No because I always make my pancakes from scratch because I do not hate myself
"Vehicle for syrup" was my nickname in college
@OrionKidder @koen_hufkens not just in technology either; pharmaceuticals, for example are still made with plant extracts but people see the common plants that heal us as weeds to be exterminated. And have you tried to source spare parts for broken electricals recently? It’s cheaper to just buy a new one - you don’t need a screwdriver any more; just an Amazon account.
The solution? Make, repair, support people to keep skills alive.
@natz_b @OrionKidder @koen_hufkens Where possible, grow your own food (and share surpluses.)
One of the most radical acts.
@koen_hufkens I would disagree with the term 'power user' but I have tinkered when it comes to mobile phones and computers somewhat as switching from running pirated to Windows to GNU Linux Distros and rooting a Huawei to run custom ROM on it !
I switched to many FOSS alternatives over the years, and always had an issue when people just gave in to persistent ads on Youtube and other apps (while I had been using third party open source apps which disable those ads)
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