Wednesday 23 January 2013

Technology and goals

For a while, I went around asking people "what do you wish your computer could do for you?" Now I think that's the wrong question. The trouble is that it's too narrow, and people lack imagination with computers. You ask what they wish their computers could do, and you get something like "single-spaced documents by default in Word", giving you the impression that their computers are almost perfect, except for that one tiny thing. Someone else has to do the imagining for them, after observing what their problems are. What I should be asking is "what do you wish you could do more easily?" From there, I can try and figure out what computers and technology can do to help, if anything.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Technology is just a set of tools, after all.
PPS - The goals always differ.

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