I don’t talk much about work. \u00a0That’s for the best. \u00a0I often wonder, though, whether mechanics or doctors or lawyers or architects – or most any profession, really – has as much to roll their eyes about. \u00a0Day in and day out, somebody says that they don’t want to put their iPad on the company’s operating system. \u00a0Or that they need an email server for their computer. \u00a0Or that they want to bookmark Apple Mail on their browser – and when it’s explained that they can’t bookmark a program, they want to move all their bookmarks into Apple Mail. (Seriously, I just spent five minutes trying to explain the difference between a website and an application to somebody who still didn’t get it. \u00a0And I punted.)<\/p>\n
Computers are not magic. \u00a0There are too many people willing to believe they are, and too many people eager to accumulate power for themselves by indulging that belief. \u00a0But it’s not a good idea for a technologist to inculcate in the end users a whole “this is magical stuff that you cannot understand” mentality. \u00a0It’s counter-productive, it means more work for the support folks, and ultimately, it results in a worse class of performance.<\/p>\n
I’m not arguing here that everyone should be writing in Assembly and recompiling their own kernel and building the OS of their phone from source. \u00a0What I’m arguing for is the simple acts of basic competence and basic troubleshooting. \u00a0What is the network? \u00a0What is the operating system? \u00a0What are programs? \u00a0What are websites? \u00a0Do you know which cable is the power and which is the Ethernet? Have you tried quitting the program and starting it again? \u00a0How about logging out and back in? \u00a0HAVE YOU TRIED TURNING IT OFF AND ON AGAIN?<\/p>\n
I mean, for Godsakes I’m not even asking people to learn to drive stick. \u00a0I’m asking people to distinguish between the steering wheel, the gearshift, the ignition key, the radio, the seat, the car, the road and which lane you’re in.<\/p>\n
Never mind Chrome OS – Marc Andressen’s vision of the browser-as-OS has come true in many workplaces. \u00a0You have Word and Excel, and then everything else – email, PeopleSoft, Oracle, payroll and timecard – it all comes through one browser (as often as not IE, and way too often still IE6). \u00a0And the documents? \u00a0Those just pile up on the desktop. \u00a0Maybe with some folders if you’re lucky.<\/p>\n
I think this is one of the reasons the iPad has so much appeal. \u00a0The extra layers imposed by the windowing-based interface are gone. \u00a0Browser? \u00a0Right there. \u00a0RSS? \u00a0There. \u00a0Calendar? \u00a0There. \u00a0No desktop, no documents, no file system. \u00a0If you’re getting at everything through a browser anyway, what does it matter the form of the browser? \u00a0Ask National Geographic whether they’re glad to have dumped Lotus Notes for Google Apps, which in turn is accessible from damn near anything in one form or another.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, then, this is the solution we have gone with: take the average office drone, take his computer, and then engineer away anything he might use to screw it up. \u00a0Try to find some way to prevent Lois Lane from being trapped on the ledge – make the ledge bigger, put up a railing, make the windows smaller, only build five feet off the ground. \u00a0But how much time can you save if you can just explain to Lois what she needs to do to stay the hell off the damn ledge in the first place?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I don’t talk much about work. \u00a0That’s for the best. \u00a0I often wonder, though, whether mechanics or doctors or lawyers or architects – or most any profession, really – has as much to roll their eyes about. \u00a0Day in and day out, somebody says that they don’t want to put their iPad on the company’s … <\/p>\n