A friend shared a post from someone else that was talking about this article. I’ve quoted the text from that post below:

This is a 1996 guide on how to help someone use a computer. It’s strikingly resonant with ‘how to be a parent’, or really ‘how to help anyone with anything’. A nice example of “the universal within the particular”

  • @anamethatisnt@lemmy.world
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    348 months ago

    Computers often present their users with textual messages, but the users often don’t read them.

    So many times I’ve just been a fancy TTS (Text to speech) assistant.
    End user: Sends MMS of error message.
    Me: Calls end user and reads the error message out loud.
    End user: Oh! Thanks! Problem solved.
    Me: No problem, have a good day.

    • Jojo
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      248 months ago

      The trick to make this stop is to be an expensive text-to-speech engine.