This article says it all: kids suck at computers. Not only them, old people too. Not only them, a huge amount of people just don’t get anything about computers, they just know how to log in and move the mouse.
The problem is that computers are everywhere now. You need to be able to do some kind of maintenance and this is where I see how the general computer knowledge is SO low. It’s freaking me out when I see how much computers are pervasive and getting even more pervasive.
I’m a stupid nerd born at the right time, in the 90s I spent time reading about the HOW of computers from the main architecture of a PC to understand what an OS has to deal with to work. I’m extremely comfortable with these machines.
Even in game development I’ve seen people asking or not understanding notions that are basics of how a computer works.
It is annoying because this ocean of ignorance is pure laziness. People act like they don’t need to know that but today even with the most advanced cars you might need to change a tire on the freeway and you need to know how to fucking do that. You will never be able to always pay your way out. Train yourself, get experience.
So it’s how society just slips more and more into a totally dependent way of dealing with things that kills me. I’ve learned that independence is something to reach for, as much as possible because it’s satisfying and super efficient and it’s totally true. When I localize a problem on a computer, change the hardware and go back to work in the afternoon it’s better than going to a fucking store and pray that it will be easy and that I will not loose my data.
This mix of high technology and deep, profound lack of knowledge triggering satisfaction in people (“I’m lame with computers, haha!”), I hadn’t seen it coming. Or I didn’t think it would be that bad (which is why the article’s solution of doing command line stuff in Linux is ludicrous; there is no better way to hate computers than searching solutions for Linux problems).
Also I want to get paid much more for that knowledge, jeez.