Being Ignorant
Submitted by mediumgeek on Tue, 06/06/2006 - 08:08
Not knowing something does not make you ignorant. What makes you ignorant, however, is not seeking knowledge when given the chance.
Gerður Jónsdóttir
| I am an Icelandic mediumgeek who lives in Oslo, Norway. I work at Opera Software making user interfaces for mobile browsers. I like reading and traveling most of all but there are many other things I like sticking my nose into. I have secret liking for getting upset about religious and political matters. Those are topics you are likely to find some entries about on my blog in between other things that happen to interest me then and there. Please note that the opinions here are my own and have nothing to do with my employer, family, or friends. More about me |
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I think it's important to simplify your life. There are whole areas of human endeavor that I don't want to know about. There are points of view that I don't care to understand.
The local papers here are state-censored. Should I waste my time uploading this garbage into my memory? Most conversations I've had with people about religion have turned me off to the topic (not only to the concept of religion, but to the discussion of the subject).
I'd rather choose a few fields to concentrate on, and go deep.
Now let's see if I can avoid double-posting this time (since it's a discussion about ignorance after all...).
Yes, it is impossible to know everything
Yes, there is way too much information out there and it is impossible to know everything. That is why not knowing something doesn't make you ignorant.
There are simply things that we don't need to know and it is much better to use your mind in a way that benefits your expertise/interest/need best. I only consider it ignorant if you come into a situation when you need certain knowledge, have the chance to gain that knowledge, and still can't be bothered. Well then I would myself accept to be called ignorant:-).
Btw. if it is easy to double post here that would be a usability problem and not ignorance. Errors are almost never the user's fault, it is always the fault of the software/web site. Pity that I am too lazy to do anything about it:-).
Usability...
Your attitude is refreshing, I only wish more people in my industry saw things the same way.
I clicked the Submit button, and then realized I had left the Subject field blank. So I quickly hit my browser's Stop button, thinking that my post had not been fully uploaded. Then I resubmitted with a decent Subject.
IMHO the problem is that traditional browser controls don't always jive with Web applications. The Stop button didn't stop anything. That's not a criticism of your site, but of the direction things have gone in.
For example, users have no idea what to expect if you hit the Back/Stop/Forward while AJAX-type stuff is going on. And wouldn't it be great if the Back button actually rolled back database transactions!
Usability in a circle
It is an attitude anyone involved in usability needs to have. Errors that are actually user's fault are very rare. Sure, if the user decides to delete their Windows folder despite warnings you can maybe say it is their fault since Windows would be unusable without being able to sometimes delete things in there... which kind of gets you back to the point that it should work well enough so that you would never have to do that:-).
The submitting problem case would probably be a bit tricky to solve as the submitting to database can happen anytime after you hit submit and you might hit the back button before or after. You are right that the Stop action is ambigous. I am not knowledgable enough about web application so I don't even know if you could detect the Stop event and roll back. You could probably hack a solution which attached unique id to the form and asks you if you want to overwrite if you submit the form twice but that too could be annoying.
The problem with software development is the lack of time. You sometime have to sacrifice usability because it would be too much work (which equals money) to get it right (and finding what is right isn't always easy either). In my case, I am using an outdated version of Drupal which is a ready made web application. I should at least update to get some fixes for free but then I would have to make a new theme as this one is no longer supported. And if I wanted to start improving the system I would have to learn php and start digging. Untill I find the time and energy I hope people will accept the downside. But comments are definitely welcome!
This is actually motivating me a bit to start investigating an update...:-)
The view from over here...
Well, technically not knowing something *does* make you ignorant... but I don't think that's such a big deal.
While over the years I have slowly increased my pool of knowledge, my experience, and I hope have even gained a little wisdom, my ignorance has remained infinite (in the mathematical as well as metaphorical sense), and my stupidity never ceases to amaze me - despite the fact that I pride myself on being quite clever.
But people who are not interested in learning anything new are the people who make ignorance seem like a dirty word. "If you're not looking for a solution, you're part of the problem" went the 60's aphorism. There's something to it.
I think that the pleasure I get from reading your blog is partly about having my ideas challenged and learning stuff, and partly about changing the way I think about things - which is another way of learning.
(So please, keep blogging :) )
Ignorant to me means bad
It is good to hear that my blog gets you thinking. That means mission accomplished for me:-). If my blogs gets few people to think a little, not necessarily change their mind, but rather to factor some extra arguments for or against things that means it is time well spent.
Yes, technically not knowing something makes you ignorant but since ignorance generally has such a bad connotation I don't like being called ignorant unless it is something that I really should have known. I once got accused of being ignorant because I had never heard of a particular place. It was a insignificant place to my life and I had just never come across the reason to learn about it (or hear about it). That doesn't make me ignorant (in the bad way), does it? I however can accept to be called ignorant if I didn't know the capital of the country I lived in, or when I am not up to date enough on major current events. Also next time I got asked if I still didn't know about this place...
You shouldn't be called ignorant (in the bad way) when you don't know something that you have never happened to come across or that you have no need for knowing. It is like you wouldn't call a kid ignorant would you? Or is this one of those times when my grasp of English is lacking?