Stand Alone, Complex
May. 2nd, 2009 08:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serynDevice specificity.
Whenever I have something that does just one thing, it generally does it well.
Admittedly this is because I make well-informed purchasing decisions.
Whenever I buy a device that has several specific functions, it usually it fails. That is different from a general purpose device which can serve many functions...
I have a bricked VCR/DVD player, for example. It died under 4 months from purchase.
If I buy a computer, I expect it to be able to surf the web, play DVDs, play MP3s, word process, manage my money, etc. Sometimes a stand-alone device is superior, like with my MP3 player. But sometimes like word processing and DVDs, the software capabilities vastly exceed the hardware controls a stand-alone device could have.
I am thinking also about kitchen appliances. I used to have a drip coffee maker. It wasn't automated. It did not have features. You poured water in, pushed the switch, and waited. After about 15 years, I could not get the mineral residue completely clear and it got slower and slower. Also the coffee was not as good because slower water meant lower brewing temperatures. I bought an electric water kettle and it makes much hotter water much faster. Then I thought about it and realized I should get a French press and be able to control how long the coffee brews without it being rushed by gravity. Now I get vastly superior coffee by using two stand-alone specific devices in tandem.
I worry about that kind of preference though because I see it all the time in job ads. The company wants someone with N years of experience with P, D, and Q. (Usually at least one of which has not been out for N years.) Then they want someone with at least a Masters because college diplomas have been dumbed down so much or because companies want older people but ageism is illegal (depends on whether you're asking someone mid-40s or mid-20s, really.) But even when they find someone with exactly the experience they specified, the person can't usually groove with the changes time brings. I used to be somebody who knew the right Ps and Qs at the right times, but I never quite managed to find a job that appreciated that I was mentally agile enough to see the direction things were going. Now I am no longer mentally agile at all and I resent all the changes when they happen.
I worry that I am a DVD/VCR and I have bricked myself just outside the warranty. Then I tell myself that most people drink lousy coffee out of a drip machine with a timer, so a magic device that can synthesize different concepts would be a phenomenon.
So I hope to post regularly, kick starting my brain. I doubt I will ever be in the position where I have the right Ps and Ds and Qs again, but maybe if I know all those together means pretty damn quick, I'll be able to have a place in the world.
Whenever I have something that does just one thing, it generally does it well.
Admittedly this is because I make well-informed purchasing decisions.
Whenever I buy a device that has several specific functions, it usually it fails. That is different from a general purpose device which can serve many functions...
I have a bricked VCR/DVD player, for example. It died under 4 months from purchase.
If I buy a computer, I expect it to be able to surf the web, play DVDs, play MP3s, word process, manage my money, etc. Sometimes a stand-alone device is superior, like with my MP3 player. But sometimes like word processing and DVDs, the software capabilities vastly exceed the hardware controls a stand-alone device could have.
I am thinking also about kitchen appliances. I used to have a drip coffee maker. It wasn't automated. It did not have features. You poured water in, pushed the switch, and waited. After about 15 years, I could not get the mineral residue completely clear and it got slower and slower. Also the coffee was not as good because slower water meant lower brewing temperatures. I bought an electric water kettle and it makes much hotter water much faster. Then I thought about it and realized I should get a French press and be able to control how long the coffee brews without it being rushed by gravity. Now I get vastly superior coffee by using two stand-alone specific devices in tandem.
I worry about that kind of preference though because I see it all the time in job ads. The company wants someone with N years of experience with P, D, and Q. (Usually at least one of which has not been out for N years.) Then they want someone with at least a Masters because college diplomas have been dumbed down so much or because companies want older people but ageism is illegal (depends on whether you're asking someone mid-40s or mid-20s, really.) But even when they find someone with exactly the experience they specified, the person can't usually groove with the changes time brings. I used to be somebody who knew the right Ps and Qs at the right times, but I never quite managed to find a job that appreciated that I was mentally agile enough to see the direction things were going. Now I am no longer mentally agile at all and I resent all the changes when they happen.
I worry that I am a DVD/VCR and I have bricked myself just outside the warranty. Then I tell myself that most people drink lousy coffee out of a drip machine with a timer, so a magic device that can synthesize different concepts would be a phenomenon.
So I hope to post regularly, kick starting my brain. I doubt I will ever be in the position where I have the right Ps and Ds and Qs again, but maybe if I know all those together means pretty damn quick, I'll be able to have a place in the world.
