I still don't understand how some people work without a folder hierarchy in the left pane... I never understood Norton's dual-file-list-pane setup - the current path is not sufficient context for me.
I still don't understand why anyone wants to waste screen real-estate with a left pane. First thing I do on a new system is configure whatever file manager I have to live with to be as sparse as possible. I miss the Amiga Workbench coupled with DiskMaster II (Norton style dual-file-list, though configurable to as many file list windows as you like)
It's astonishing how often people don't even notice that they're working around things. After noticing that something doesn't work the way you like and finding a workaround the workaround slowly becomes muscle memory and you stop thinking about it.
And then you look over someone's shoulder and wonder why on earth they would do what they're doing the way they're doing and when pointing out to them that there is a better way they just shrug and note that what they did works too.
Funnily enough, at least regarding UX, such coping behaviour doesn't seem to register as a nuisance after you have your workaround. That being said, I still prefer getting things right enough that users stumble on the obvious and easiest way first.
In a sense, all technology usage is the child of working around limitations; when the plasticity of thought meets the annoyingly concrete world, something's got to give. The best technologies, then, are the ones that conform to our predispositions and allow us to reuse pre-existing workarounds.
No, I'm from New Jersey and it wasn't an insult - it was an observation and something that I myself experienced as a Mac user.
(I wonder if you're thinking "He's not a Mac user." - Are you? I'm betting that you are because many, many Mac users don't consider one a true user unless they're gushing over the product and company.)
If I'm not doing something, and want to start, then I just reset to a 'known-good' location with a key or mouse shortcut.