News and thoughts from the people at EllisLab.

Different Viewpoints

Posted by Rick Ellis on March 25, 2008

My wife doesn’t understand computers very well, therefore she is easily annoyed by them.  For her, a computer is an appliance, like a toaster, to be used for a specific task, so it should work 100% of the time.

I love and understand computers, so I tolerate their imperfections.  For me, a computer is not an appliance, it is an extension of myself, so it will have quirks and imperfections.

If my wife is browsing the web and a page is slow to load, she expresses frustration.  Why doesn’t it work like the telephone?  You dial, it rings, the other person picks up!

If I’m browsing the web and a page is slow to load, I understand that my request must go through numerous switches and routes on its way to a server somewhere in the world.  At any step of the process, or at the server itself, something might cause a slowdown.

If my wife’s computer gets sluggish, or if she sees the spinning beach ball, she curses at it.

If my computer gets sluggish, or if I see the spinning beach ball, I understand that an application has bumped into an exception, or that there are processes spawning behind the scenes, one or more of which has caused the processor to divert its attention from the task I was doing.

My wife gets annoyed that I seem so at peace with my computer, and rarely ever have trouble with it.

I get annoyed that my wife is impatient with her computer, and regularly seems to have trouble with it.

My wife’s perspective is totally valid.  Her viewpoint is based on her assumptions, expectations, and experience.

My perspective is totally valid.  My viewpoint is based on my assumptions, expectations, and experience.

Neither of us is wrong, we are only different.