Spending most of my working life interacting with computers makes my mind think that this is the way the world behaves.
There is often a big disconnect between the two worlds, and many concepts just do not exist in the real world.
I truly understand why Neo in the Matrix was so God Damn special. He had all the virtual tricks up his sleeve.
Search Frustration
My brain has the following algorithm to find something that it wants:
1. Look where I think the item should be until my patience runs out, then
2. Hit Ctrl-F to search or go to Google.
It genuinely takes my brain a couple of seconds to realise that this is not going work in this situation.
When I cannot find my keys, or the USB lead to connect the camera to my laptop you can hear me stomping around the house, and after a cerain amount of time, cursing and slamming stuff about. Poor Clare - sorry babe!
Clipboard DIY?
Any time intensive task done on a computer can be instantly replicated thanks to Copy and Paste.
For example, you spend ages working on a diagram. You take your time drawing a system component, then copy and paste it again and again. Months later, you can go back to the document and plagiarise the diagram and impress your mates. See: Finite vs. Infinite Production Capacity
Now, compare this to wall-papering or making mince pies. You take your time, get the first one perfect, then surely its just Copy and Pasting the rest. Nope.
I think that this explains why my patience for these sorts of jobs quickly runs out.
Undo
The key to learning is being able to make mistakes. If you can try out ideas Consequence Free, then you can perform little experiments and learn about How The World Works. This is great in computers, but when you are assembling flat-pack furniture or putting up a shelf, you cannot drill your holes to see if thats the right place.
Well you can actually, but when you've finished it will look crap.
2 Lives Left
We are mortal. I have just had a very shocking reminder that we are not playing a computer game, and you do not have three lives.
One bad role of the dice, its Game Over.
There is often a big disconnect between the two worlds, and many concepts just do not exist in the real world.
I truly understand why Neo in the Matrix was so God Damn special. He had all the virtual tricks up his sleeve.
Search Frustration
My brain has the following algorithm to find something that it wants:
1. Look where I think the item should be until my patience runs out, then
2. Hit Ctrl-F to search or go to Google.
It genuinely takes my brain a couple of seconds to realise that this is not going work in this situation.
When I cannot find my keys, or the USB lead to connect the camera to my laptop you can hear me stomping around the house, and after a cerain amount of time, cursing and slamming stuff about. Poor Clare - sorry babe!
Clipboard DIY?
Any time intensive task done on a computer can be instantly replicated thanks to Copy and Paste.
For example, you spend ages working on a diagram. You take your time drawing a system component, then copy and paste it again and again. Months later, you can go back to the document and plagiarise the diagram and impress your mates. See: Finite vs. Infinite Production Capacity
Now, compare this to wall-papering or making mince pies. You take your time, get the first one perfect, then surely its just Copy and Pasting the rest. Nope.
I think that this explains why my patience for these sorts of jobs quickly runs out.
Undo
The key to learning is being able to make mistakes. If you can try out ideas Consequence Free, then you can perform little experiments and learn about How The World Works. This is great in computers, but when you are assembling flat-pack furniture or putting up a shelf, you cannot drill your holes to see if thats the right place.
Well you can actually, but when you've finished it will look crap.
2 Lives Left
We are mortal. I have just had a very shocking reminder that we are not playing a computer game, and you do not have three lives.
One bad role of the dice, its Game Over.
96 comments,
Pensive, Wednesday, June 29, 2005 06:20
