[whywhywhywhy]

Clippy was on the right path at the wrong time, the issue wasn't the concept of an assistant that watches your work and provides help, the issue was it could detect a letter, offer help but the help it gave you was just a bunch of shallow formatting suggestions without context to the actual work.

An actual assistant that can preempt what you need and create it before you get there with a 95% success rate will not feel like Clippy.

[mistrial9]

Clippy from MSFT? this is where the techies really lose perspective.. you see, its not just a computer, a computer company, and a user.. Real life includes social systems with social contract, and the relationship of the user's logs, records and autonomy to the "master" of the economic relationship. Microsoft has made it clear that surveilling the user and restricting autonomy is as valuable or more valuable from a business perspective than the actual actions performed, AND at the same time, entire industry product lines are designed to trivialize and factor out personal skill and make job performance more like replaceable piece-work.

Lastly, people are more or less aware of these other dynamics at work. Yet, people are people and respond to other social cues. The sheer popularity of something being novel, cute or especially "cool" does move the needle about adoption and implementation. Clippy was a direct marketing response to Apple getting "cool" ratings with innovative GUI elements.

[nedw]

While I agree with some of your points about corporate data practices and the potential for technology to deskill labor, I'm not sure I see the direct connection with Clippy. Clippy, as limited as it was, seems like a poor example of these larger concerns.

Furthermore, saying "techies really lose perspective" comes across as dismissive and judgmental. It's important to remember that people are drawn to technology for various reasons, and many are deeply concerned about the ethical implications of what they build. Painting an entire group as lacking awareness isn't helpful or accurate.

If we want to have a productive conversation about the impact of technology, we need to avoid generalizations and engage with each other respectfully, even when we disagree.

[whywhywhywhy]

>Clippy was a direct marketing response to Apple getting "cool" ratings with innovative GUI elements

Honestly think Clippy predated that, came out in 1996 for Office 97, Macs were only on System 7.5 back then while I think you're thinking of the early MacOS X era which was was 6-7 years later.