Thu, 14 Jan 1993 19:01:39 EST
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I very much sympathize, empathize, with Bayla Singer and her feeling
about having to deal with computers and computer professionals. I am
always intimidated by their apparent superiority. Like Bayla, I do my
homework and I try to understand the systems that I use. Nevertheless,
much of what I am doing remains a mystery to me and , when something goes
wrong, I have no way to fix it. Not only that, when something goes wrong,
I frequently find myself ill-equipped with the necessary vocabulary to
explain to computer professionals what it is that Is going wrong and what
it is that I want.
Now, this is not all the fault of people like Bayla and me. We are the
end users and without us there would be no computer professionals. It is
the end users who provide the jobs for computer professionals, not the
other way round. So I feel that it behooves most systems people to spend
less time belittling the ignorant (but willing-to-learn) user, and more
time being helpful.
I used to be a macro economist and spent my life working with obscure
models and concepts, just as obscure and arcane as anything a computer
person can come up with. Yet, I do not recall my colleagues or me ever
delighting in the humiliation or obstruction of the users of our charts
and models. The true professional is someone who can do the work and
apply it to real life in a usable way. This is true in all disciplines,
as far as I am concerned.
It is user demand that drives computers, not the other way round. So the
user should be treated with respect and consideration simply for "market"
reasons even if plain courtesy is not enough of a reason.
Peace, Anthea Tillyer ABTHC@CUNYVM City University of New York
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