Comment by lordnacho
6 days ago
I also think something fundamental is missing in the education of your average office worker.
The reason why people are scared to change software is that they can't actually use any software. They basically don't know how it works and are just cargo culting. They memorize some functions, and they think that is all they need to do their job, which they consider to be some higher level thing like being a bureaucrat.
But it's like literacy. You're not literate when you can only read one book. You're literate when you can read any book.
There are principles in how software works, below the level of the programmer, that everyone can learn. What is running on my machine, what is running on the server, why do I see the things on the screen that I see, what do common GUI elements do, and so on.
I entirely agree with you, but I'm at a loss as to how we might improve things.
People just don't seem to care, just like they didn't seem to care to understand how machinery used to work. They know that they should press this button and expect that outcome.
We teach reading in school. I think the same could be done now for tech literacy.
It was pointless to try something like that before because the older generation was usually less tech literate than the kids. But these days tech literacy is dropping (and with AI, probably even more so), so it might be that the older generation could actually teach it.
As a programmer I fully understand and even support what you suggest, but I’m not sure it will ever work. My mother, wife, good friend, etc - none of them can grok what a computer program is, or the file system. I’ve tried and tried for many years and it just doesn’t click. On the other hand, I’m realizing more and more how ‘blind’ I am when it comes to color, fashion, decorating, shapes, etc. My logical left-brain merges perfectly with computers, but not more squishy things. Many friends and family are the opposite. I don’t think teaching can overcome that basic wiring. We’re just different.