On Thu, 2003-01-02 at 17:57, Gilad Ben-Yossef wrote: > > Don't forget that not everyone in this world is meant to become a > > programmer. In fact, *all* the people in the modern world are mere > > consumers of most of the technologies and products that they use, be it > > computer software or canned tomato paste, and they neither know nor care > > about the way they're created. > > This is where you and I completly differ. I don't like the concept of > being a consumer and that children are being brought up to be one. This > is exactly the "drone" mentality I as referring to.
Well, you may not like it, but you are one. There's no way that somebody could know everything about everything, and that's why we specialize in different things. You have no choice but accept that most of the technologies and products in this world you will never completely dissect and understand -- it just all got too big for one person. The "basic understanding" you mentioned elsewhere in your e-mail is what makes all the difference -- it's very good to thrive to have a basic understanding of everything, but tweaking the source of your word processor is way beyond that. So the boy who specializes in music in his school has a computer class, and you as a teacher must give him the knowledge that will serve him best when he later has to use a computer (as a *consumer*), and not draw him into the free software argument and make him a showcase of your opinion at the expense of his time and mindshare. -- Alex Shnitman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.hectic.net/ UIN 188956 PGP 0xEC5D619D / E1 F2 7B 6C A0 31 80 28 63 B8 02 BA 65 C7 8B BA ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
