Bear with me. Do you see computers as intimidating, did people you know see them this way? Or are they dumb machines, tools, automata?
I have been thinking about the paradigm of "commands" in programming, and whether softer/more 'polite' language could improve the machine UI
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Separately but relatedly, how frustrating are error messages to beginners? Wouldn't you feel better w "sorry, please ask again differently?"
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I never had an issue with commands and errors. I would probably find it more frustrating if the computer were "polite"
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Aha yes. And you are a programmer?
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I'm a finance prof. But I write code for research. Sometimes I'd like an empowering error message like "There's probably a way to do that."
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That'd be great!
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But saying you had no problem with commands personally doesn't mean that this wouldn't be worthwhile for someone else
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Of course not! In fact many of my students have a fear of being told they are mistaken that I can scarcely understand.
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Software Engineer here - requests and commands are very different. A request implies that you ultimately don't have control over the output.
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As a self-taught programmer, the greater issue was always cryptic commands that aren't self-explanatory. I prefer descriptive to polite.
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Yes! Language fixes our orientation to the world. Ex: metaphors of invasion have shaped our relationship to nature http://brendonlarson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Larson-2008-BLM.pdf …
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That is an interesting concept! Please elaborate!
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