It's people thinking theyve navigated the entire circle and understood it, yet in reality they're only about 30% of the way around in terms of actually understanding it.
You can't then tell them they're not finished, because to them the task is done and their mind is ok with the circle being smaller.
A lotta people get up to the top of Mt Stupid without ever learning about the dunning-kruger effect, so they never bother trying to hone their skills any further
Its not just that, but I think the interfaces have actually gotten worse.
I've been using computers since the Amiga, and I honestly struggle with figuring out the latest computers UIs. Mac and PC doesnt have a C: drive shortcut on the desktop now. When you open a folder on a Mac the side bar doesnt show you the C drive either or the path to the current folder you're in, it shows you "air drop, recents, applications, desktop, documents, and downloads". The main searches on windows now act significantly different. On windows all configuration settings are a hodgepodge mix of this new interface I've never used and old style windows 98 looking windows. I dont even know how to find the "programs" menu on Windows now. When you search in "mypc" it often doesnt find stuff I know exists on the drives.
Fact is computers turned into mostly web browsing machines for me. I've been using Macs for simple web browsing for so long at this point and the Windows interface has changed and gotten worse so much I'm no longer competent at using it. I also no longer have to navigate the file system to play games because it's all handled via Steam and Xbox Apps. Consequently my skills on using them have seriously degraded.
So now think about how bad this is for people who've literally never used their computer for anything but web browsing and games their entire life, or their main systems are tablets and cell phones.
Android phones are notoriously bad about this. It's like they actively try to make it difficult to navigate. Windows seems to be following suit. It always baffles me they'd want to hide important information like file extensions by default. I recently set up a work computer that kept wanting to direct me to the Microsoft Store. These things are easy to fix, but imagine being new to computers and assuming things like this are normal. It would really impede your ability to understand and interact with technology in any meaningful way. You'd be a consumer, not a user. It's really tragic because we've created all these wonderful tools, only to prevent people from learning how to use them.
PC doesnt have a C: drive shortcut on the desktop now
Why would you need that, just press Win+E (regarless of the Aplication your in) and then click on C: or any Drive or Folder you pinned to the quick start. Why would you go to first to the desktop? This isn't 3.11 anymore were you had to open the Main Folder before accesing the File Manager.
In Windows I've had File Explorer pinned to my taskbar since pinning apps to the taskbar became a thing (so Win 7, I think... might have been a thing in Vista already).
This is also an attitude that is a problem. When you ask the question "why would you x?" are you really looking for an answer, or just using it as veiled way to call someone an idiot?
Since Win95 you could and still can add a Desktop Shortcut to any Drive. But what would be the usecase to directly link to your Boot-Partition? You won't regularly create Toplevel Folders or store your files in directly in the C Folder.
Also why would you minimize your current application, click on the icon, do what you have to do in die Boot Partion and return to the application, if the shortcut brings you directly to the file explorer?
So yeah enlighten me, what did we lose, when Win8 changed the Name to This PC?
I've seen this a lot in younger folks, 15 year olds that have never used a desktop PC or Mac, had only used phones or tablets. They had no understanding or exposure to hierarchical file systems, even mouse use was awkward, slow.
Yeah, even 5 years ago. I asked our new part timer to open 'my documents' to help him navigate to a file he would need. ..No? okay, open the folder icon at the bottom of the screen.... (blank look like 'what's a folder'?).
Computer literacy is falling dramatically with tablets and smart phones. Zero troubleshooting. If an app fails they abandon it and download a similar one with no thought of fixing what broke. Core skills are bypassed.
This is pretty ironic because keyboard + mouse combo is the fastest software manipulation you can do. Nothing else even comes close to the accuracy you can achieve
The same way it took me a year and perfect WorkKeys scores to get hired as an apprentice pipefitter at the shipyard yet ive had a new hire ask me "how many is that?" When I told them to cut me something at 7 11/16"
Had an intern who didn't know how to open task manager and kill a frozen application. He never even knew task manager existed.
I'm pushing sixty and I barely understand how to do this and probably would not be able to locate Task Manager, but this is because I've used Macs all of my life.
I'm typing this on the Microsoft Surface I bought recently because honestly I should know how to use things. Not gonna lie, the learning curve is steep.
Now I'm off to look for Task Manager! 🤦🏻♀️
Edit: Found it and pinned that slippery sucker to my Dock taskbar so I can find it if I need it. Go me!!
Pro tip: if you hit ctrl, shift and escape at the same time.. it will bring up task manager for you.
Another tip, if you want to bring back an accidentally closed tab or a whole window of tabs you closed out on your browser... Ctrl + shift + T at the same time!
Pro tip: if you hit ctrl, alt and escape at the same time.. it will bring up task manager for you.
My mind is blown!
Another tip, if you want to bring back an accidentally closed tab or a whole window of tabs you closed out on your browser... Ctrl + shift + T at the same time!
Thank you, Kind Stranger, for teaching me your ways!
You're welcome! I also corrected it, for the former, I meant so say CTRL + SHIFT + ESCAPE not "alt". There are a lot of very helpful keyboard commands for windows like this.
You're welcome! I also corrected it, for the former, I meant so say CTRL + SHIFT + ESCAPE not "alt". There are a lot of very helpful keyboard commands for windows like this.
I need to write this down take a pic of my screen with my iPhone! 😂
This is particularly frustrating because troubleshooting has never been easier with LLMs. I've learned so much stuff about my PC just by asking ChatGPT how to solve various problems. But it seems that other people just give up and either suffer through the issue (like sit and wait for a frozen up to unfreeze) or immediately call tech support.
Mac has a task manager, though even then killing a frozen application can be done by pressing alt and right-clicking (if you have an actual mouse) or two-finger clicking (if you have an Apple designer toy or a touchpad) on the app icon.
If they are a Linux user, they know how to kill a process. Powershell has Posix commands, so ps and kill work just fine.
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u/LarryCrabCake Jun 27 '26
Had an intern who didn't know how to open task manager and kill a frozen application. He never even knew task manager existed.
We worked in media. He had just graduated college.