Getting rid of the file hierarchy was like saying "Well, most people read at a six grade level, lets publish the New York Times as picture books." Now people are even more siloed between who actually knows whats going on and who doesn't with technology, instead of it lifting everyone up on an equal plane. I'm starting to think that period of time where the kid knew more than the parent with regards to the computer as this goldilocks zone, and its all down hill from here as we've gone from scary cli to safe gui to bubble wrapped mobile to what, vr ad machine probably where all you need to learn how to do is put it on your head and open your eyes. I'm having to teach undergrads what files even are before we can even think about writing code, and these are the ones that are taking computer classes.
I think we risk stunting the development of the next generation if we insist that they use the metaphors that made sense to an earlier generation. I say we stand back, let the next generation figure out their own ways of doing things, and expect to be impressed at what they accomplish. If nothing else, being optimistic like that is more appealing to me than lamenting a supposed dumbing down as innumerable generations before us have done.
Edit: This is one reason why I as a forty-something will probably not attempt to teach any of my nieces and nephew (8 years old and under) to program. The generation gap between me and them is too big.
"we" will never stand back, so if you do, someone (potentially much worse) fill happily fill the void, there is no way for any generation to stay insulated and magically figure it out on their own (also the same innumerable generations that did the lamenting practiced the optimism)
I think you’re right and it’s sad. There could’ve been a way to gradually disclosure complexity that ended up inviting and educating the masses.
OTOH, I know seniors managing huge WhatsApp groups, installing apps, upgrading OSs, migrating backups without blinking. Those same people couldn’t install a single app on Windows if their life depended on it.
We could’ve done better, but it’s unquestionable that there’s been some democratization of essential tech.
You have to wonder if the democratization of this tech would have happened anyhow even with a more complicated OS. I like to think it was inevitable. We like to think we as consumers have choices that lead to things reflecting our wants, when really our wants reflect what the market is able to make available as a potential choice to us consumers. The inevitable smartphone would have been in everyone's pocket I expect, just like how the inevitable flip phone was in everyone's pocket, just like how the inevitable everything else ended up in everyone's home and life: it was there in the store when the advertisements told them it was time for them to buy.
The hardware was inevitable. The software, not so much.
Apple made a lot of compromises, constraining a Unix system ™ to a huge degree in order to make it extremely simple and usable battery/ram wise. Those compromises had costs.
