[miltonlost]

It's very difficult when you only have a wood or charcoal stove that needs to be fanned for 20 minutes at a constant rate or else the rice will burn. Which is why the electric rice cooker was such an amazing creation. It's in the article about the inventor of it.

As for today? Well, too hot on the stove or a phone call comes in, and poof, there goes all the water and the rice burns. If you're making rice 3 times a day, it's easier and safer to cook in a machine that guarantees perfection every time.

[masfuerte]

You don't simmer for twenty minutes. You simmer for ten and remove it from the heat for the remaining ten. The rice never burns because it is still quite wet when you remove it from the heat. Start with twice as much water as rice (by volume) and it comes out perfectly. I've been cooking rice like this for thirty years and it's always great.

[walthamstow]

That's synchronous cooking. Think of a rice cooker as asynchronous cooking. You turn it on, walk away, come back whenever you're ready and you've got rice waiting for you. It is extremely convenient.