in·tu·i·tive/inˈt(y)o͞oitiv/
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It's been my observation that at about the time the first group of nerds got together and invented the computer (or whatever whiz-bang contraption preceded the first true computer) mankind began losing his sense of instinct.
Very little today is intuitive. To turn off a computer you press "start". Huh? Why don't they just have a little button that says "off"? Ever try to record a program on a DVD? Unless you've received a Masters Degree in Engineering from MIT or Texas Tech in the last couple of years, or have a 6-year-old kid whose first toy was a laptop, fuggetaboutit! It doesn't matter what the little buttons say, they usually don't do what you think they should!
Case in point: Night-before-last the temperature in Dallas dipped to 31 degrees. Before then we hadn't even turned on our heat, but we did that night just in case it got too cool inside overnight. Sure enough, the next morning we decided to give the thermostat a nudge and warm our little apartment some. As I was closer to the thermostat, K gave that chore to me. BIG MISTAKE!
This is what our digital thermostat looks like.
When we moved in we received a packet of instruction manuals for (almost) everything....oven, cooktop, microwave, etc....but not the thermostat.
How hard can this be? I don't need no stinkin' instructions. I want to "SET" the temperature to let's say 68 degrees. Press "SET", then up to "68", then "HOLD" (to hold that temperature when you're finished "setting" it). Then "RUN" to start everything in motion. Make sense? It did to me at the time.
Au contraire. The first thing I knew a blast furnace fired up and the read-out said, 75...no, 80...no, 81. WTF? OK, quick. "UN-run", "UN-hold", "UN-set". Something....anything....STOP!
K calmly walked over, said a few unkind words about my Neanderthal intellect, pressed a few buttons, and the world was right again. (Keep in mind K is 20-years younger than me and definitely has that post-computer-age mind set, while I'm still thinking with a "Grog-busting-rocks" kind of natural instinct.)
Is it just me? Are there truly no Dodo birds besides me left in the 21st Century? Hellooooo.....
S
I don't know what the problem is. The button labels are self explanatory. First you press and hold the "Hold" button. Duh!! Then sit and press the "Set" button. (they misspelled it) and finally press the "Run" button and run like hell to be gone before the house blows up.
ReplyDeleteEither that or get a grandkid to help.
Guilty as charged...I have to have my 4 yo grandson show me how to run the dvd!
ReplyDeleteIn my defense their set has a two second delay on every button. Even if i press the correct button I overrule the decision by my lack of patience.
You nailed it on this one.
Scott....Then why is the "SET" button on top of the "HOLD" button? That's bass-ackwards. Oh...wait...you're a Scott, too. (That explains a lot! :)
ReplyDeleteS
You have a point there, I should first sit and press the set button. But, it is like eating corn on the cob. Do you start at the end and work across or start in the middle and work out to each side (or around)?? I have not read those instructions either.
DeleteI'm beginning to hate that word "intuitive," because it makes me feel stupid. You know how they say Apple products are intuitive? Any Grandma just "knows" how to use one. This Grandma begs to differ...
ReplyDeleteMy apartment, having been built back in the analog days ;-) has a thermostat with a lever that swings from no heat on the left to not-much-more-than-no-heat-when-it's-0F on the right. But it is simple enough for me to figure out.
ReplyDeletemy new partner being 20 yrs older then me, I know exactly what you mean! lol
ReplyDeleteAll those transformer toys we put into our children's hands have prepared them for the electronic world. The rest of us were all left in the dust.
ReplyDelete