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by 4ndr3vv 3489 days ago
> But why should they need to?

Because that's what this whole article is discussing: computer skills.

Your examples reference appliances; cars drive, cameras take pictures, TVs play stuff. Computers support multiple tasks.

Unless you expect all computer based work in the future to be run though bespoke single function apps that have one giant button, people are going to keep needing these skills.

1 comments

I suggest you look at your phone, because giant button single use apps is exactly what we have.

Taking a photo? Tape the picture of the camera, and then tap the giant button. Sending a message? Tap the speech bubble, type out message, and hit the big send button. And so on, and so forth.

Yes, but this isn't work. Work is more discrete, less specific; I very much doubt we could have such simple apps that could support the employment of ~1/3 of the population (those in the article with -1 or 0 "computer skills")

Work is where complex tasks expose themselves; tasks that sit between theses apps. If you don't have the knowledge or how-to to move between the buttons in the increasingly appified future, you're going to struggle.

And we build workflows around those apps by storing data in files.