←back to thread

917 points cryptophreak | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
kccqzy ◴[] No.45762054[source]
I think there is something deeper here: people have become scared of the unknown, therefore we need to hide things for them. But people don't have to be scared. In fact even for people who are using Handbrake comfortably, a lot of things Handbrake presents in its UI are probably unknown to them and can safely be ignored. The screenshot in the article shows that Handbrake analyzed the source video and reported it as 30 FPS, SDR, 8-bit 4:2:0, 1-1-1. I think less than a tenth of a percent of Handbrake users understand all of that. 30 FPS is reasonably understandable but 4:2:0 requires the user to understand chroma subsampling, a considerably more niche topic. And I have no idea what 1-1-1 is and I simply ignore it. My point is, when faced with unknown information and controls, why do people feel scared in the first place? Why can't they simply ignore the unknown and make sense of what they can understand? Is it because they worry that the part of the software they don't understand will damage their computer or delete all their files? Is it just the lack of computer literacy?

I do not readily empathize with people who are scared of software, because my generation grows up tinkering with software. I'd like to understand why people would become scared of software in the first place.

replies(3): >>45762411 #>>45762474 #>>45763791 #
1. thadt ◴[] No.45762474[source]
Not scared, time limited.

The world is a complicated place, and there is a veritable mountain of things a person could learn about nearly any subject. But sometimes I don't need or want to learn all those things - I just want to get one very specific task done. What I really appreciate is when an expert who has spent the time required to understand the nuances and tradeoffs can say "just do this."

When it comes to technology 'simple' just means that someone else made a bunch of decisions for me. If I want or need to make those decisions myself then I need more knobs.

replies(1): >>45767220 #
2. kccqzy ◴[] No.45767220[source]
In my comment above I specifically did not expect the user to learn and understand everything, just the ability to ignore it. Handbrake has good defaults and the user would be successful if the only thing they do is: open the file and the press the green button.

And scared is the word used by the original author in the title. I want to understand that emotion. I don't need someone to tell me we can't learn everything.