Sunday, January 06, 2002, 11:17:26 AM, you wrote: [...]
> What we call common sense is a product of our upbringing and > experience, and basic things change with cultures. An example would be > the following: > Common sense tells you that people usually eat with knife and fork. > Common sense tells other people that you eat with chopsticks. On > highway signs depicting a restaurant, a plate surrounded by a knife > and a fork will be shown in Germany; a rice bowl and two chopsticks > are shown over here. Both are intelligible within their respecive > cultures; a German highway-sign designer, never having been in Taiwan, > may just use the wrong picture - due to his common sense. In my opinion, those aren't really examples of common sense, Thomas. Cultural conventions, or habits, perhaps, but not common sense. Here's some examples of common sense: It would be common sense for a merchant to sell chop sticks in Japan, but not knives and forks. Just as it would be common sense for a merchant to sell knives and forks in America, but not chop sticks. It would be common sense for a merchant in, say, Timbuktu, to sell pillows to sit on, rather than, say, Barc-a-loungers. If you were going to sell cars in Great Britain, would you try to sell them with the steering wheel on the left? Or on the right? Common sense can also be wrong. E.g., just a few years ago, it wouldn't have made any sense at all to most people that someone would pay $14.00 to mail a letter somewhere if you could guarantee delivery the next day. Then along came Fred Smith and Federal Express to prove everyone wrong. JF>> And I think it makes sense (common or otherwise) to the overwhelming JF>> majority of people that the *easier* you make something to use, the JF>> more likely it is that people will use it. > Correct, but for some people "easy" means something else than for > others. Thai people (at least outside of the big cities) often find it > easier to sit on the floor and cannot understand why Westerners prefer > to sit on chairs. See above. JF>> But you're still a human being, which means that you'll naturally JF>> migrate to whichever way(s) is(are) easiest for you. > Yes, but that is a personal decision and cannot be generalised. At > least not across the whole world. Au contraire. I think it can be generalized around the world, and across all cultures. For example, do you know anyone who is intentionally working on an invention, tool, device, program, etc. that makes something *harder* to do? I think it's what separates human beings from the other life forms. >From the day humans climbed down from the trees, we've been trying to find ways (e.g., with tools) to do things more easily. >>> I use alt-F2 rather than hitting the Check All buttonith the >>> mouse, but I perfectly agree that the mouse made many things a lot >>> easier for people advancing in age <g>. JF>> I'm pushing 60, Thomas. And I represent the generations of human JF>> beings still out there who didn't cut their teeth on computers. > I hope you don't feel insulted; You're going to have to do much more than that to insult me, Thomas. I'm virtually insult-proof. > I actually meant myself, using the mouse more and more. I'll be 40 >in a couple of days. I was reluctant to use the mouse when I first >had to use Windows. But I think this has more to do with what you are >used to, rather than what is easier. Many power users prefer to use >the keyboard, because they find it faster and more precise. My >problem is remembering the 150 or so keyboard shortcuts TB alone >offers, and that is not the only program I use. You're actually helping to make my case, Thomas. A really good program would allow power users to use the keyboard extensively, as well as allow klutzes like me to use the mouse extensively. There are many more klutzes out there than there are power users. That is precisely why Bill Gates is today the richest man in the world. >>>FWIW the keyboard shortcuts crtl-C and crtl-V are *not* intuitive. JF>> Okay. Maybe you're right about that. But those commands were among JF>> the first ones I was ever taught. And they remain at least universal, JF>> if not intuitive, thanks to Bill Gates. > That's what I'm saying. ;-) It's what you are used to that counts. No, Thomas, what counts is having the ability to CHOOSE the way you want to use a program, and not being forced to learn something that you have no desire, or time, to learn. It's the difference between playing in a niche market, or in a mass market. JF>> Yep. You're basically a GUI Guy. But you've got a little Keyboard JF>> Guy blood in you, too. > Thanks. Must be in my genes. :-) And we surely wouldn't want to try to fool Mother Nature, would we? JF>> Have you decided how you will raise your children yet? > You mean on the keyboard or the mouse? <g> Yes. JF>> I think maybe you misunderstood me. I don't think one method is JF>> inherently "better" than the other. It's just that, for some of us JF>> anyway, one method is much *easier* than the other. > This I can agree to. I thought you would. JF>> I may not know much about computers, but I know my marketing. > No doubt about your marketing knowledge, but I think you know more > about computers that you want to let on. ;-) I didn't mean to suggest that I'm clueless about computers, but compared to most of the folks here, that's not far off the mark. As "Dirty Harry" Callahan used to say, "A man's got to know his limitations." And I know mine. -- Joe Finocchiaro mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] -- ________________________________________________________ Archives : http://tbudl.thebat.dutaint.com Moderators : mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] TBTech List: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Latest Vers: 1.53d FAQ : http://faq.thebat.dutaint.com
