Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate the need for constant vigilance, but this type of knee-jerk reaction is what prevents the wider scale adoption of good crypto practices.
Don’t set the bar lower; encourage competence. I’ll quote this in order to further explain:
The problem is, I had yet to find an easy way to do this that didn’t involve downloading command-line based software.
Why not use command line software? This is an important question I have a cached answer to, but I often find my own answer non-satisfactory.
We should be living in a tell culture, so I’ll tell you that in my experience, there’s some sort of dichtomy between CLI and GUI and that gap is usually experienced people on one hand and inexperienced on the other.
I don’t have anything to say against the experienced people, but I will say that the inexperienced ones, that seemingly always prefer the GUI also tend to suffer from learned helplessness, and more directly, baby duck syndrome.
That’s not to say that they aren’t right in a certain way of thought—they want things to be simple—but I often wonder if this is my own optimism about people in general, rather than the inexperienced people’s refusal to learn and adapt a factually better way. Many a nerd/geek/enthusianist are baffled and infuriated when their attempts to actually better the world around them is simply bounced off despite their indisputable intent to help those around them. (This is how it feels like, by the way http://www.coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-computers/)
But because they’re inexperienced, wouldn’t that mean that in due time they’re going to run into problems? If you have a problem you did not know how to adequately solve, and someone is offering you a solution, would that mean your problem is solved? Not at all, unless you know both your problem good enough that you can say the solution will solve it. The inexperienced people are at the mercy of anyone who is going to give them a solution—and wouldn’t you say it’s a rationality failure to not correctly solve your problems?
I think that it was in the “shut up and multiply” page on the wiki that says that a whole human life is simply too significant in proximity to a certain fear, or a problem of unknown complexity. Or rather the opposite, fears and problems and other demotivating things that actively delay or even stunt growth are simply too insignificant in front of a whole human life (and that could be your life as well!) that stopping at those should simply not be an option, and is a negative consequence option no matter the situation.
Now, can you tell me why us, the people that actively try to improve our surroundings, the people that care about our environment, the people who are consistently shunned despite our unmistakable, undeniable, and unbelievable effort we put in, are putting in, and will put in, deserve to be completely, unforgivingly, and absolutely pushed aside, once again? Other that being just another plus one to the statistical curve; and secondly, why the implications that people pick up a few books, read a few articles here and there, and perhaps, more bottom line than those previous suggestions, learn some helpfulness, shut up and multiply, and grow up from their baby duck syndrome is such an horrendous thought, and worse, very seldom a suggestion?
And as for a good closing paragraph, I’d like to say that it’s my belief that as an adult, you are responsible and indeed must work to self-improve yourself, and in extent, to anything and everyone around you. (Anyone here playing cops and robbers need not apply)
I had some more to add but it slipped from my mind. Now, can I please have some answers?
If you are trying to trying to make the world a better place and find yourself pushed aside, shunned, bounced off, etc. you are doing it wrong. Stop blaming the people in the world for your inability to change them.
People can be stupid and stubborn. There are two ways around the problem. You can either convince them to stop being stupid and stubborn, in which case you are a salesperson. Or you can develop a solution that works around the problem, in which case you are an engineer. If you do neither and instead complain about how stubborn and stupid people are, then you are a whiner.
With this issue, the constraint is simple: people use GUIs, not CLIs. Doesn’t matter which one is better. It matters which one people use. If you are taking the sales approach to the problem, you can try to convince people to use a CLI insetad of a GUI. If you are taking the engineering approach to the problem, you can try to build a better GUI. If you are taking the whiner’s approach to the problem, you can tell people who build GUIs that CLIs are better.
Don’t set the bar lower; encourage competence. I’ll quote this in order to further explain:
Why not use command line software? This is an important question I have a cached answer to, but I often find my own answer non-satisfactory. We should be living in a tell culture, so I’ll tell you that in my experience, there’s some sort of dichtomy between CLI and GUI and that gap is usually experienced people on one hand and inexperienced on the other.
I don’t have anything to say against the experienced people, but I will say that the inexperienced ones, that seemingly always prefer the GUI also tend to suffer from learned helplessness, and more directly, baby duck syndrome.
That’s not to say that they aren’t right in a certain way of thought—they want things to be simple—but I often wonder if this is my own optimism about people in general, rather than the inexperienced people’s refusal to learn and adapt a factually better way. Many a nerd/geek/enthusianist are baffled and infuriated when their attempts to actually better the world around them is simply bounced off despite their indisputable intent to help those around them. (This is how it feels like, by the way http://www.coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-computers/)
But because they’re inexperienced, wouldn’t that mean that in due time they’re going to run into problems? If you have a problem you did not know how to adequately solve, and someone is offering you a solution, would that mean your problem is solved? Not at all, unless you know both your problem good enough that you can say the solution will solve it. The inexperienced people are at the mercy of anyone who is going to give them a solution—and wouldn’t you say it’s a rationality failure to not correctly solve your problems?
I think that it was in the “shut up and multiply” page on the wiki that says that a whole human life is simply too significant in proximity to a certain fear, or a problem of unknown complexity. Or rather the opposite, fears and problems and other demotivating things that actively delay or even stunt growth are simply too insignificant in front of a whole human life (and that could be your life as well!) that stopping at those should simply not be an option, and is a negative consequence option no matter the situation.
Now, can you tell me why us, the people that actively try to improve our surroundings, the people that care about our environment, the people who are consistently shunned despite our unmistakable, undeniable, and unbelievable effort we put in, are putting in, and will put in, deserve to be completely, unforgivingly, and absolutely pushed aside, once again? Other that being just another plus one to the statistical curve; and secondly, why the implications that people pick up a few books, read a few articles here and there, and perhaps, more bottom line than those previous suggestions, learn some helpfulness, shut up and multiply, and grow up from their baby duck syndrome is such an horrendous thought, and worse, very seldom a suggestion?
And as for a good closing paragraph, I’d like to say that it’s my belief that as an adult, you are responsible and indeed must work to self-improve yourself, and in extent, to anything and everyone around you. (Anyone here playing cops and robbers need not apply) I had some more to add but it slipped from my mind. Now, can I please have some answers?
(HAPPY WATCHLIST FOR ME)
If you are trying to trying to make the world a better place and find yourself pushed aside, shunned, bounced off, etc. you are doing it wrong. Stop blaming the people in the world for your inability to change them.
People can be stupid and stubborn. There are two ways around the problem. You can either convince them to stop being stupid and stubborn, in which case you are a salesperson. Or you can develop a solution that works around the problem, in which case you are an engineer. If you do neither and instead complain about how stubborn and stupid people are, then you are a whiner.
With this issue, the constraint is simple: people use GUIs, not CLIs. Doesn’t matter which one is better. It matters which one people use. If you are taking the sales approach to the problem, you can try to convince people to use a CLI insetad of a GUI. If you are taking the engineering approach to the problem, you can try to build a better GUI. If you are taking the whiner’s approach to the problem, you can tell people who build GUIs that CLIs are better.