🚀 go-pugleaf

phoward@bcf.usc.edu (Paul Howard) wrote:
>
>
>I haven't had the advantage reading the beginning of this discussion,
>but I'd like to offer my input anyway...

That's OK.  You are presenting an argument at seems valid, but which I
think is flawed -- and only partly because of the type of client I
service.

>
>It seems to me that your job, as a provider of technology, should simply be
>to provide a technology that does a simple task (or a complex task) simply.

In the short term, yes.  Most email out there has two faults, 1) it doesn't
do the right thing easily, and 2) it's too hard to learn how to do simple
things.  In the long term, no.  The technology is not static.  When I started
we had to educate people to the fact that messaging (email) was something
worth doing, now I'd guess that there are very few people reading this msg
who do not consider email somthing worth doing.

If I try to provide the hard case simply for the user then I am dooming
the user to the correctness of my guess -- which will never be totally
correct.  Instead, I should provide the user with a path -- a way to
migrate into understanding.  Thus, the correct thing to do is make it
easy enough to get started and provide enough information that the user
can cope with the changes yet to come.

>
>It's not your customer's job to understand how that technology works--he's
>got to worry about manufacturing all those widgets (or selling them, or
>designing them, etc.).  Ideally, his computer should be as easy to use
>(or easier) as a pencil and paper, or a handheld calculator, or a telephone.
>When you get around to selling an electronic communications system that
>is that easy to use, you'll find that there won't be nearly as many "bozos"
>out there to deal with.  By offering a system that anybody could use, with
>little or no practical knowledge about *how* it works or *why*, you're 
>offering the user a *choice*.  They can choose to increase their technical
>knowledge, or if they are not inclined to do so, they may choose not to.
>If they choose not to, they still won't know the difference between an ISDN
>line and a hole in the wall, but then again, they shouldn't have to know
>that in order to use e-mail.

There problem here is one word: change.

>
>Besides, if every user was as savvy as you, you'd be out of a job, wouldn't
>you?  ;-)
>

No, I wouldn't.  I provide a service (as well as a turnkey system), if the
user were to take up what I'm doing for themself instead of concentrating
*predominately* upon their business then they would go out of business.  On
the other hand, a customer who relies completely upon me to understand what
I do without comprehending what it is that I do is completely at not only
my mercy, but at the mercy of my guesses.  Also, such a customer cannot
explain to me what they want, and therefore will never get it.

-

Actually, there's another -- and much more direct -- way for me to make this
point.  It was one of my customers which pointed me to Linux.  (Obviously, I
have whole heartedly embrassed the suggestion. It fits both my customer's and
my own needs.)

-- 
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