You don't really wonder this, yeah? You certainly know the answer...psycopathicteen wrote:I still wonder how the general population think old systems work.
Oh, you mean like this but in bulk? I've been passing that one around for a couple days now. I'm particularly appreciative of the time spent to draw diagrams with descriptions of the components (esp. the 2A03), making complete and total assumptions, despite there being a) tons of technical information freely available on said chip, and b) an entire forum dedicated to talking about said hardware, and c) said forum having pre-existing threads demonstrating the same mindset (e.g. someone they might want to talk to in advance, "hey, how did this project turn out?"). There was a more recent one more like the first link, but I can't find it -- none of my search query terms find it. :\psycopathicteen wrote:Somebody should get a bunch of people together and ask them to each draw a diagram of how they think the system works, and it will be interesting to compare and contrast their designs with both the real thing, and each others diagrams.
It all boils down to the same thing: fewer commonplace people these days do actual "deep" research on a subject. Instead, they assume that just blindly Googling and skimming a page of results will get them answers. Or maybe even an assumption like "surely someone else has done this and I can stand on their shoulders!" (I see this often in the open-source world now). They only want to skim the surface. They find "a small gem" (ex. a forum link), then essentially ask others to do the heavy lifting ("deep" research) for them and hand-feed it to them. This isn't necessarily a generational trait either: I've actually seen people in their late 30s/early 40s fit this description, and in one case, a person who used to "deep dive" (doing homebrew) but now doesn't, instead insisting that "oh you don't need to know all that X/Y/Z stuff about Complicated Thing, just use this magical SDK!". Is there something in the water? The soil? (cue Dead Milkmen's "Stuart")
I believe ease-of-access-to-information is partially the blame (re: Internet, search engines), exacerbated by impatience (see: instant gratification syndrome). The former often fuels the latter. I personally feel the more time and effort you put into researching something, the more you can appreciate it, and usually the more rewarding it is. I think back to the hours I spent at Oregon State University's library reading 65xxx and x86 books, or times where I went to Powell's Technical Bookstore in Portland and tried to find (and read) some Apple IIGS technical references I was wanting.
But it goes further than that. How many people do you know who don't read more than 2 lines (or maybe 1 paragraph) of an Email about a complicated subject (even one they themselves may be inquiring about!) citing TL;DR? It's like the modus operandi today is "sorry, you must convey all the relevant information about a complicated thing in under 30 words else I cannot be bothered". I've literally seen people (not just me!) take *hours* to write great Emails or documentation on a subject, trying to cover all facets, only to be told by the recipient "oh, yeah, that? I didn't read it, it was too long". I've run into this in workplaces too, where managers asking loaded/complicated questions don't read the Email responses in full because, for example, "they're on their mobile phone and the mail was too long to read there" (but don't follow up using a computer later).
Things like social media don't help the situation either (incl. things like Twitter's character limits; just look at people who post long stories across 30 Twitter posts, or use several images -- uh, you're using the wrong medium to convey the information!).
The number of people who take the time to understand complex technical things, through either reading or reverse-engineering or any number of other methodologies, seem to be decreasing. I pray we don't see this kind of phenomenon happen in, say, civil engineering.
I appreciate the drive/desire folks have to do things -- it's wonderful and beautiful -- but it's like they don't want to put in the time to learn about something. Again, can't tell if laziness, some weird form of apathy, instant gratification syndrome, ADD, or what... And as someone with OCD, I probably won't ever know or understand it.
Welcome to 2018, although it's been like this for a good 10-15 or so -- probably longer if you asked someone in their 60s-80s the same question. ;-)