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i happen to disagree
by christian paratschek on Fri 3rd Dec 2004 10:54 UTC

hopefully, computers will be a lot easier to handle 15 years from now...

but aside from that: in this day and age, a lot of things are very complex. it's nice if you can build houses, service your car, i dunno, navigate a car or a boat, knoiw your computer well, whatever... but it's too much for the average person.

you'd be shocked how easy it was 500 years ago to become a universally educated person - learn latin, study theology, law and medical science, and get some extra lessons in practical work. nowadays that is completely impossible. we have to accept that there are people who can't invest time in tasks that seem trivial to others. that's just the way the world works nowadays. there's a reason why we have super-talented specialists.

i, as an example (not for a super-talented person, hehe) am quite a good historian (i guess), i am an experienced computer-user (can actually make a living out of it), and i have a few more talens (i like to write articles, i am a good teacher). well, that's already quite a few things to constantly train and improve. i don't care about cars, can't drive one or change oil. just not interested. my father knows quite well how to build houses (just his personal interest, he already made roofs, wired houses, built walls, and so on). i, for one, have not learned these techniques (even though i find them extremly helpful). there was just not enough time to do it.