"Kids Can't Use Computers" is now ten years old, and it's only gotten worse

Riley@lemmy.ml to Technology@lemmy.ml – 348 points –
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I read the (original?) article on the Verge covering this and my understanding is that it's not an issue. The files/folders way of thinking is already a metaphor for 0s and 1s scattered around on silicon. Using a "laundry basket with a search robot" isn't inherently a worse way to store data than a "file system with hierarchy".

We are just used to one way and the other baffles us because it goes against our way of thinking about 0s and 1s scattered on silicon.

Using a “laundry basket with a search robot” IS inherently a worse way to store data than a “file system with hierarchy”.

Nested folders are reliable and predictable.

Tagging is also a good option.

Relying on search that is likely to fail in predictable ways is an awful way to do anything serious. And therein lies the problem... These people have mostly never done serious work with a computer before, that other people rely on. As soon as someone else stands to lose money or fail a class because you can't find a file, the distinction will come into sharp focus.

The problem is the laundry basket is not one laundry basket, but a series of subtly different ones that are all poorly implemented leaky abstractions layered on top of files.