Content, Content, And More New Content...

Image generated by Ideogram AI.

It is clear from the reviewing the blog statistics that the way to keep the numbers of visitors coming back is in a phrase: "Content, Content, And More New Content." However if I rush out short articles Google and the other search engines frown and send the blog down to the basement of the search listings, which is not a good thing.

Nevertheless, during 2023 I did attempt to put out an article every few days and while there were a few good ones, for example "Nurturing the Creative Soul" there were also some that made me want to cringe. But I made a commitment when I started the blog way back when never to delete an article, I may tweak it a bit if I find it glaring error but the article as a whole will stand as long as this site keeps running. The whole year taught me a lesson that it is better to aim for meaningful content rather than just cranking it out. 

So how to pull this off is the question. In a way that I can sustain. The video production takes the longest to create even though I very much enjoy doing it. Then of course there's all the other related stuff:

• Creating the artwork for the YouTube and Pinterest thumbnails.
• Checking all the copyright information and making sure that it is included clearly in the video. I also want to make sure that in doing so you the viewer/reader can discover perhaps new resources in the process.
• There is always a surprise somewhere in the production. I keep trying to get it down to a formula but things are always in flux.

And that's just what comes to mind at this very moment. My intent has never been to make money, although I would never say no to that. 😀. So rest assured I'm just going to keep on going.

There was a recent request to make a comparison between Linux and Windows video. However I am not going to reproduce the same "Geeky" production which is overly detailed. I'm thinking about a split screen approach where you accomplish a task. It could be as simple as watching a YouTube video Or using some graphics program to edit a photo. We shall see what I come up with.

There will be an update on the blog sometime Monday, September 2 when I have the next segment to the "Perception Throughout The Ages" series which deals with in a broad sense how a person's perceptions alter how they work with the world. Briefly I am working with someone who has a very different way of looking at reality and I am having to teach them the very fundamentals of using a computer. There is more information in the current article,.

I am heading out to see them on Saturday, August 31. Currently I'm trying to develop some sort of very informal lesson plan. The idea of small posters with key points on them of how to do very fundamental things had occurred to me but after seeing their room in the facility it became apparent that it is far too small to clutter up with things even on the wall. Well, I'm just going to have to be adaptable and make this work.

So this is my way of saying stay tuned and please bear with me as I discover and uncover all sorts of things as I go through each day 👍.

Take care Patrick

** NOTE: The picture "Image generated by Ideogram AI" displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.

 

Perception throughout the Ages. Part 1.

 

Altered image licensed under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license.
Original photo by Dave Bezaire.

I want to get this article out rapidly, mainly because this is a fleeting thought and as most of you know sometimes you just have to grab the idea before it flies off into the ether, never to return.

I just spent the afternoon with someone who has a different way of looking at things due to their age and background. Needless to say they've been around for quite a while and they are trying to learn Windows 11 and indeed everything about the fundamentals of a computer we take for granted.

We are starting from the very beginning of cursor control, using the touchpad and what the various keys on the keyboard do. The challenging part is becoming clear to me and that is that the problem is not intellectual, it is rather out fundamentally different way of working with the world.It is physical involving three-dimensional actions. One pulls a lever and sees the spring the fulcrum acts on. It is very visual and clear not at all abstract. A modern graphical user interface on a computer is the exact opposite. Mere images are referred to as physical things "The Taskbar" for example, it is treated in discussions and books the same way of physical item is in the real world. The same holds true for "DragBars". Even the action of "clicking and dragging" is often treated in speech the same way as if it were a physical item. To this person however the computer screen is an image composed up of rectangles squares and circles. When I use the term Drag bar it took quite a bit of explaining and I think at that point they were just humoring me when they said "I understand…"

People build up mental models of their world as they proceed through life but these become structured and limiting if one is not careful. For example when I was growing up every car had a key that you physically put in to start the car. I still find it somewhat odd when I am in the vehicle and instead of a physical key they use a small electronic device or fob or even a fingerprint. I am sure they would find the world equally odd and it audits with their perceptions if they were to go back to 1960. Everyone's mental model in that era out was much more physical and just plain different. You would have to explain to a modern person just exactly how to use a rotary phone and why the heck the dial had the letters of the alphabet printed on it in such a ridiculous matter. (If I can find a good video explanation online I will put a link here of a rotary phone in action.NOTE: This link is to a 37 minute YouTube video on the rotary telephone by the channel "Our Own Devices" . It is a thorough overview and well worth the watching.)

Build Your Own Television Receiver
Science & Invention magazine cover art,
November 1928. Volume 16 Number 7
In the public domain. (Get Archive)

This is something that happens to everyone, the time you are born, the technology around you and other factors form on a very deep level how you interact with the world. I go into it in a little more detail in the short video included with this article, but suffice it to say that "not only are we, star stuff. We are products of the very time the star was made."

I for my part am so thankful that I get to experience and understand all these subtleties in life. Every time I think I've got a handle on them, reality and mother nature come along and say "There's more to this story…"

Why exactly do people stop adapting their mental models? The initial obvious answer is that it is easy to just rely on what has worked in the past and stick to it. But I think there is more going on. Many articles go on this blog I wrote a short piece entitled "They Have Never Been Taught To Think" and that may be a partial answer. As I see it diversity and challenge are what keeps you going and indeed growing. Maybe we have "overdone it" when it comes to certain types of automation and convenience. Do you really know what is going on behind the scenes when you click that icon on your phone to open any particular app? The probable answer is "No", but you do expect to work". But if that was the singular answer in this elderly person would have adapted to their new laptop quickly. For the simple reason that through most of their lives they've had to work things through. A light didn't just come on when they walked into a room, they had to turn it on. Further, they had to understand at least partially the number of things that had to occur for things to work. If the light didn't turn on when they flipped the switch may be the fuse, which was a precursor to the modern circuit breaker, needed replacing. Their mental model had to be adaptable. That again brings me full-circle back to the initial question at the beginning of this paragraph.

I will be filling this article out more as we go a long.

August 28 update:

 Perhaps the best way to move forward in situations like this is to find out what their, for lack of a better word, baseline is. For example I remember a few years ago working with someone who in their mid-adult years used Microsoft MS-DOS extensively. As a matter of fact when I was working with them they still had a computer running that operating system and had it online using a dial-up modem service in conjunction with the program called "Telix". This meant that they can only connect to the Internet via a strictly text interface. There were no embedded graphics at all.

Over the course of months we attempted to move them to a "Windows 7" machine which they absolutely hated. Ultimately to he did decide to go back to their old machine with the dial-up modem. Even though the new computer functioned quite well.

So on my next visit to our current user I'm going to ask them what using a computer was like originally for them and try to put everything in a similar context.

Take care Patrick.

You Don't Know What "Democracy" Is, Because You've Never Lived In A Country Without It.

My views on politics and life in general are pretty simple: "Everyone has the right to govern their own lives and are also responsible for what they do." Of course this is an extremely oversimplified statement, but at the heart of my thinking, that is it. The individual is free to do what they want and they must owner what they do. But It seems that today people are yearning for the exact opposite, rather than freedom, they want more "guidelines". There are now more socially implied  rules and it is much easier, at least from my perspective, to step over some politically correct boundary. What is going on here? Globally, societies seem to be throwing away the idea of democracy. They may call it something else in the media but I think that's what it boils down to. You just need to look at what is going on in the United States right now to see how polarized the liberal and conservative camps are becoming. It doesn't matter the topic either. There is less true debate and more justification of why any particular viewpoint is correct. It is almost as though every idea is being approached as though it were a sales pitch, literally a commercial. Rather than discussing a viewpoint or position, individuals are selling their point of view. There is no discussion and interaction involved.

Don't take democracy for granted. The "Good Old Days" were not as good as you remember.

Democracy and the responsibilities that brings with it are being thrown away bit by bit. My concern is that the people doing the "throwing away" don't know what their giving up because they've always had it. Some of you reading this paragraph may say "Patrick, don't be ridiculous. It will never get that far." My response to them would be "Look at the world. Look at how polarized people have become in their viewpoints." There seems to be far less a willingness to discuss and debate any issue now days we seem to go straight for the extreme.

On 11 February 1990 Nelson Mandela made
his first public speech, after 27 years in jail.
Source: South Africa Gateway.
License: CC BY-SA 4.0

Is this because modern communication systems have taken face-to-face meetings and interactions out of discourse? Instead of dealing with a real person in a group, the debate is happening over a video chat? Which takes out that small but very important responsibility involved with dealing with someone personally, physically in the same space. They used to  call this  video chat side effect "The Ivory Tower"; it meant that the person was out of touch with the topic and not seeing the broader picture. I think this might be what is happening today with society. Therefore it becomes easy to complain about democracy or any other concept because people are seeing it only from their own ivory tower. It is very much like dealing with someone over the phone rather than a person. When you are right there with the individual there are many more subtle cues and motivations. The two people may understand the issue much more thoroughly, because meeting in person brings the topic alive for them. They still may not agree, but there is much more understanding and I bet her list of the tendency to become polarized on the issue at hand.

The bottom line is: People need to gather in person more. To rebuild those connections that originally brought societies together and allowed sincere debates to occur without the dangers involved in thinking in extremism terms. It's a slower process absolutely. But everyone wins no matter what the outcome because dealing with people face-to-face makes you acknowledge the humanity and the complexity. People are stronger emotionally and I believe intellectual as well.

Whereas with the Internet and other communication media it is far easier to write your comment, click the submit button and off you go to somewhere else. You can't do that in real life. You have to deal with whatever the issue is, with the people right there with their comments and rebuttals. Everybody comes out of this real-life experience with them far richer understanding.

As far as democracy goes, debated with someone in real life. Meet with them over time. Go through the pros and cons of not only democracy but any other system you can think of. Then you will know what it is like to live without it or at least have some depth on the topic.

Take care Patrick.