[Techtalk] Re: Inertia (was: Re: [Newchix] welcome newbies!)

[Mary]

This thread is moving outside the topic of newchix. I'm carbon copying
techtalk. If you reply PLEASE PLEASE only send the reply to techtalk,
not to newchix.

On Tue, Mar 05, 2002 at 10:02:29PM -0600, Syleniel Se'le'na wrote:
> On Tuesday 05 March 2002 09:09 pm, Mary did scribe:
> > It's not always the case that inertia is a bad thing though.
> 
> What you talk about tho is tools that work. If something is an
> "issue", or a problem, why should it still be around?

Because things that are issues for some aren't issues for others. I love
the command line, this thread has seen people for whom it's an
issue/problem. My wrists hurt when I use a mouse too much, mice are my
issue/problem. But that doesn't mean I'm on a quest to rid computing of
them.

> > The main way in which change will occur is change that is driven by
> > designers who are sensitive to the needs of newbies. 
> 
> I think another way things change is programmers who are out to make
> cleaner code, and more functional things that they would want to use
> :)

I've often thought that the way programmers use computers has some
funcdamental differences, possibly due to experience, to the way my
mother uses a computer. Some results in UI design are counter-intuitive.

> >And this change is not necessarily a good thing - it may make people
> >who struggled to learn the existing systems less productive and more
> >angry while they readjust.
> 
> It's a known problem that people don't want to learn new things
> period. At a company I used to work for, this was the reason that few
> people took advantage of the *free* internal one-on-one personal
> training for computers until IS was breathing down their necks. I
> think that part of the inertia is laziness. 

Part of the way I try and approach these things is with a "customer is
always right" frame of mind.

This can be very hard in tech support, especially hard on people who are
paid to use their computers and so should learn how to, but I try not to
diagnose negatively ("lazy", "inert", "afraid of change") first off.

I have to admit that that's partly due to me.

I like the command line, I don't want to be forced to use my mouse more
to be able to continue using Linux. I find I'm productive with the
keyboard. I'm horribly unproductive in Windows these days because I've
forgotten half the keybindings and all the setup has canged since 3.1.
And I don't think of this as "lazy" I think of it as "this semester, I
want my brain to be occupied with discourse analysis, not Windows
hardware settings."

But if the UI changes every twelve months, even if it is moving to
something easier for newbies, "how to use the tool" is always sucking
mental energy.

People are always "lazy". I was too lazy to learn calculus to the same
standard as algebra. Why? I hated it. I'm too lazy to tidy my room. Why?
Well, I just don't give it the headspace. There are certain other things
that I'm hardly lazy about.

There's only so much time in the day and UI designs and redesigns need
to cater for the people whose time is pretty much all accounted for,
both newbies and relearners. Hence I don't agree with change for it's
own sake.

> > It's all... just a thing. Inertia is.
> 
> Fortunately so are the want to excel, and creativity ;)

Indeed, but I want to let people choose where to excel. If someone's an
excellent composer, I don't insist that they know how to use Linux
before I'll stop thinking of them as "lazy". :-)

-Mary.