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[kstuart]

In psychiatry, the term refers to a tendency to take one data point and make a broad sweeping generalization based on that ("All ____ are ____ ").

But, what I am talking about is how people in the modern world are dealing with the ever increasing complexity of a world where 7 billion people are actively working every day to make your life more complicated.

Due to the Internet and globalization, we have hundreds of millions of new middle class people in other continents, who are coming up with new products ( in order to make a living ).   These products require an ever increasing amount of our time - even to just decide we don't want them.

For example, in the 1960's, to play music, one either turned on the radio and turned the tuning knob, or you picked out a vinyl disk and placed it on the turntable.   To watch TV, you turned it on, and selected one of three channels.

In comparison, just peruse the MC18 forum topics about tags, updates, OSes, EPGs, MKVs, BluRays and on and on.

Most people's reaction is to desperately seek out generalizations in an effort to simplify - "It will always sound better if you ____ " or " _____ always works better than ____ ".

I'm reminded of the commercial where the starlet intones:

" 1080i - I don't know what it is, but I know that I want it. "

The end result is a clinging to "principles" - sort of like having an adherence to heaters, so that you run them whether it is 10 degrees or 100 degrees (something we also see in politics these days - politicians cannot be seen saying that something is right in one situation and wrong in another - even though the world usually works that way).

I'm encouraging that JRiver is trying to oppose this trend with features like "Red October" - MC18 automatically provides better video playback than other freeware players do after hours of tweaking settings.

Other companies have not grasped this concept - as I realized the first time that Windows notified me that I had icons that I had not used !   Why should I care or even be aware of this ?   Only OS engineers need to now about that.  An OS should be 100% invisible to the user.   Imagine having to reboot your refrigerator before getting a beer !

[Matt]

Most people's reaction is to desperately seek out generalizations

I'm stuck in a circular loop

[MrC]

Only OS engineers need to now about that.  An OS should be 100% transparent to the user.

I'm stuck too.  Somebody help us.

[JimH]

Very funny and insiteful.  Thanks.

[kstuart]

I'm stuck in a circular loop

At first glance, it seems contradictory, but the difference is whether or not you apply generalizations to specific situations.   Again, heaters and air conditioners are good things, as long as we don't apply them 365 days a year.

[kstuart]

I'm stuck too.  Somebody help us.

You're right, wrong word, I changed it to "100% invisible".   In the same way that telephone switching networks are invisible when you are making a call - and rightly so.

Some years back I was in a remote town in Asia, to finally meet someone whom I had corresponded with for a long time.   You picked up a telephone and told the operator the number and they "booked the call" (waiting for circuits to be available).  A half an hour later the phone rang and it was my friend (who lived out beyond the edge of the town), and he arranged to pick me up.

Nowadays they have cellular phones.

The point here is that Windows has always been like "booking a call" (requiring you to be aware of the phone system). Making the average person need to be aware of a computer OS has always been the wrong approach.  It is only because OS engineers spend 10 hours a day with all these things, that they could not see the need to make sure that everyone else never spends any time with icons, rebooting, defragging, etc.

[MrC]

Or it could be that these problems are unbelievably (or even insurmountably) difficult.  Ease of use and power are always in competition, and the complexity either falls upon users or falls upon the developers who must make real-world choices due to real-world pressures (generally placed upon them by unrealistic patrons).