Everyone reading this post is in the top 5% in terms of computer skill
Yeah, pat yourself on the back, you're smart.
who's still getting the hang of EBay and Amazon, who
Googles URLs instead of typing them
Never used EBay, never bought anything from Amazon and I also Google for URLs from time to time ... pretty sweat if you can't remember the exact string.
techies ... mis-over-estimate the skill of the average computer user
I actually think we underestimate the "average" computer user more often than not.
Apple's products are not idiot proof. The iPhone itself does take some time before you become productive with it. But they make the learning process fun and they respect their customers enough to not make them feel like idiots.
Also, there is no such thing as an "average" computer user, as that would mean some kind of common-denominator, which would be false since all people have different personalities / skills.
I've actually never played Angry Birds.
The game is free of charge in the Android market. Search for it and click install.
> Never used EBay, never bought anything from Amazon and I also Google for URLs from time to time ... pretty sweat if you can't remember the exact string.
He is referring to people that type "facebook" into google to go Facebook.com. He is making a generalised statement. Generally to present an argument or point it is okay to make generalised statements to help bring a point across.
> I actually think we underestimate the "average" computer user more often than not.
I tend to overestimate them, to each their own. Who are you qualifying as "we" here anyhow? Clearly I don't belong in your "we".
> Apple's products are not idiot proof. The iPhone itself does take some time before you become productive with it. But they make the learning process fun and they respect their customers enough to not make them feel like idiots.
No, not idiot proof but they are easy enough to pick up and start using by just playing, click on options, turn stuff on and off, download new apps to play with, hit the home button and back you are in familiar territory. The same could not be said for some other pieces of software. It took me a while to figure out how the Zune worked for instance, it wasn't intuitive like my iPod was.
> Also, there is no such thing as an "average" computer user, as that would mean some kind of common-denominator, which would be false since all people have different personalities / skills.
"average computer user" is used in the same manner as "average person" or the "average child" (such as "the average child at age 10 can read X").
Of course, typing "facebook.com" into Google and clicking on the first result (which, of course, is "facebook.com") is not really the same thing as typing "facebook privacy" into Google to get a quick link to the facebook privacy policy. One of these is convenient, and the other one just adds a step. It's the difference between googling for a URL, and googling a URL. Adding the "for" obfuscates.
Not just me, everyone who regularly posts on a niche board about programming and entrepreneurship. Maybe my original statement was hyperbole, but it's not crazy to say that people who voluntarily seek out conversations on the value of OOP are more tech literate than the average. Similarly, if we were on a website catering towards people trying out for minor-league baseball teams, the audience would mostly be in the top 5% in terms of athleticism.
And for the record, I'm probably the dumbest guy here, and I freely admit it.
>Never used EBay, never bought anything from Amazon and I also Google for URLs from time to time ... pretty sweat if you can't remember the exact string.
You're trying to misread me here. There are people for whom "order tickets online" is a major accomplishment, akin to cleaning out the garage. Once, a ReadWriteWeb article[1] overtook Facebook in the Google search for "facebook login" (w/o quotes). It resulted in thousands of people commenting on the article trying to log into facebook. I'm not saying "can't tell RWW and Facebook apart" is average, but I am saying that that's a rare occurrence.
>Apple's products are not idiot proof.
Of course not. But the flipside of the file structure and CLI on an iPhone being locked away is that users can't accidentally do something to their System directory. And locked-down, reviewed applications means fewer compatibility issues and fewer misbehaving apps slowing things down.
Apple's products are not idiot proof. The iPhone itself does take some time before you become productive with it. But they make the learning process fun and they respect their customers enough to not make them feel like idiots.
Also, there is no such thing as an "average" computer user, as that would mean some kind of common-denominator, which would be false since all people have different personalities / skills.
The game is free of charge in the Android market. Search for it and click install.