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by jiggawatts 534 days ago
Something I've noted about all advanced tools is that the inept fear them, the capable use them, and the elite embrace them wholeheartedly.

Everything from IDEs to Google search gets the same treatment.

I remember a colleague watching me edit code exclaiming that I was "Cheating!" because I had syntax highlighting and tab-completion.

Another coworker who had just failed to get answers after searching for "My PC crashed, how to fix?" kept telling me that the results "couldn't be trusted". He was reading Windows XP bug reports over a decade out-of-date for troubleshooting a Windows Server 2022 issue that manifests only on Azure.

Some people are afraid of these things and suspect there's a hidden agenda, others see things for what they are: Just tools, each fit for a particular purpose.
2 comments
throwaway127467 534 days ago
Is this phobia angle the new talking point? "If you fear our tool for a hefty subscription price while we are logging all your data, you are inept?"

My experience is exactly the opposite: Inept power users jump on the latest bandwagon to camouflage their incompetence. And like true power users they evangelize their latest toy whenever they can.

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gbnwl 534 days ago
This is the fourth account you've made in the past hour just to comment on this post.
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viraptor 534 days ago
> tool for a hefty subscription price

There's quite a few solutions to choose with per-request pricing. Only extremely heavy users should be on the subscription these days.

You can invest in running things yourself too.

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vouaobrasil 534 days ago
> Some people are afraid of these things and suspect there's a hidden agenda, others see things for what they are: Just tools, each fit for a particular purpose.

Well, there's also the arms-race scenario. A classic example is computer security: people only make computers more secure because people hack them, which makes hackers improve their stuff. This prisoner's dilemma scenario gives a deterministic force to technology that certainly makes it more than just a tool: it is a force that acts upon society that transcends human choice.

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