This is kind of like blaming car manufacturers for people not knowing how to drive manual and how cars work under the hood, because they made cars reliable and simple to use.
There’s always an incentive to make things more accessible. Skills always become outdated because of that. How many of us know how to skin game and cook it on naked fire? Not many, I presume.
Chromebook for all its flaws and limitations still let children, who would not have otherwise used any computing device, at least use one.
I feel like this analogy is perfect, but not just for the reason you used it.
Car manufacturers making cars easier to use and require less maintenance is great. Your point in regards to people just not needing the old skills because of that is spot on.
But car manufacturers have also been making intentional design decisions to make accessing things under the hood require speciality tools or needlessly complex when it is needed. There are cars where you can’t replace headlights without removing the whole front bumper assembly. That isn’t the fault of the owner/user, and it’s not a case of “improvements make old skills obsolete”. It’s design intentionally hostile to the goal of allowing owners to even attempt it themselves. Scummy as hell, and we should be holding these companies responsible.
Google has done and is doing the same thing with Chromebooks and Android. File system? Folders to organize my files? What?
And now we have people who don’t know how to operate their car’s headlights, and people who can’t find files if they aren’t in the “recent documents” list.
For sure, taking control away from the users is terrible and scummy, but I think it’s an entirely different issue, covered by “right to repair”. A very small amount of people had the know how and the confidence to perform the repairs themselves even before this anti consumer practices became so widespread, so I don’t think it’s a huge factor in decrease of skill. I would say a much bigger factor is the fact that technology has become exponentially more complex. You can’t just open up a radio and replace a vacuum tube, everything is a microchip now, and the soldering iron isn’t gonna help much there. I guess eventually we will reach technology complexity and abstraction of such a level that no single person can hold the knowledge to “fix” it on their own.
Yup. I’m teaching my son CAD/CAM with a 3d printer, low level programming and electronics with Arduino, he helps with mechanical and electrical repairs. Linux with the home server. Fishing, hunting, and camping. Wasn’t ready this year for steers or chickens but hopefully will next year. Wife is teaching him how to cook, (I’m a decent cook, but she is amazing). Simple sewing. Basic carpentry. And so on.
School isn’t going to teach him much of this, but we will.
This is kind of like blaming car manufacturers for people not knowing how to drive manual and how cars work under the hood, because they made cars reliable and simple to use.
There’s always an incentive to make things more accessible. Skills always become outdated because of that. How many of us know how to skin game and cook it on naked fire? Not many, I presume.
Chromebook for all its flaws and limitations still let children, who would not have otherwise used any computing device, at least use one.
I feel like this analogy is perfect, but not just for the reason you used it.
Car manufacturers making cars easier to use and require less maintenance is great. Your point in regards to people just not needing the old skills because of that is spot on.
But car manufacturers have also been making intentional design decisions to make accessing things under the hood require speciality tools or needlessly complex when it is needed. There are cars where you can’t replace headlights without removing the whole front bumper assembly. That isn’t the fault of the owner/user, and it’s not a case of “improvements make old skills obsolete”. It’s design intentionally hostile to the goal of allowing owners to even attempt it themselves. Scummy as hell, and we should be holding these companies responsible.
Google has done and is doing the same thing with Chromebooks and Android. File system? Folders to organize my files? What?
And now we have people who don’t know how to operate their car’s headlights, and people who can’t find files if they aren’t in the “recent documents” list.
For sure, taking control away from the users is terrible and scummy, but I think it’s an entirely different issue, covered by “right to repair”. A very small amount of people had the know how and the confidence to perform the repairs themselves even before this anti consumer practices became so widespread, so I don’t think it’s a huge factor in decrease of skill. I would say a much bigger factor is the fact that technology has become exponentially more complex. You can’t just open up a radio and replace a vacuum tube, everything is a microchip now, and the soldering iron isn’t gonna help much there. I guess eventually we will reach technology complexity and abstraction of such a level that no single person can hold the knowledge to “fix” it on their own.
Yup. I’m teaching my son CAD/CAM with a 3d printer, low level programming and electronics with Arduino, he helps with mechanical and electrical repairs. Linux with the home server. Fishing, hunting, and camping. Wasn’t ready this year for steers or chickens but hopefully will next year. Wife is teaching him how to cook, (I’m a decent cook, but she is amazing). Simple sewing. Basic carpentry. And so on.
School isn’t going to teach him much of this, but we will.
Wanted to say the same thing you said, but with actual literacy. Books exist, but the desire to be literate is not there.
It’s more like blaming bumper cars for not being actual cars. Sure, bumper cars are more reliable and simple to use but the “use” is severely limited.