The Illiterati

Sat Feb 7 15:07:58 PST 2004

vraptor at employees.org wrote:

>
>"These people" are not illiterate, nor are they ignorant.  They are
>*overwhelmed*.  Recall the age of most managers (esp. 2nd tier and
>above).  These folks have little to no experience before the age of 20
>with computers.
>

How many tiers of management does a company need?

However, ignoring that for the moment ... I beg to disagree.

[1]   I have been observing the phenomenon described, for nearly ten 
years now.

[2]   During this ten year period I have been -also- managing the 
increase in data.

[3]   -I- was using operating systems before multitasking was 
commercially available.

[4]   People have been organizing large amounts of data for centuries.

[5]   The individuals I refer to have no respect for others being 
overwhelmed.

>p.s.  As for your conspiracy comments, I do believe that America is
>suffering from a general "dumbing down" as a result of changes in
>education over the past several decades.  But, that's a political
>discussion that is not on-topic for this list.
>  
>

One would expect that access to computers and other tools of literacy 
would -increase- one's capacity to deal with complexities ... not 
decrease it.

In answer to the question I posed previously, I think the answer can be 
found, in no small part, in the mail client universally found on 
management desktops: Microsoft Exchange.

Recently I have been compelled to use Exchange. I found its behavior not 
dissimilar from Netscape Communicator; if I were blindfolded I might not 
be able to tell the difference ... except for the annoying insistence of 
Exchange to display the first few sentences of the email.

People adept at using Exchange quickly learn to use this feature to 
their advantage, by putting everything into that first sentence or two. 
On the other end, many managers just read that first sentence and never 
actually bother to read the entire email.

Much like the managerial insistence that any decision is better than 
appearing indecisive, this habit can lead to stupid decisions; and more 
often than not, it does.

When this happens, the problems that ensue are, naturally, placed at the 
doorstep of the person who wrote the long, technical emails, for failing 
to clearly explain the problem to all interested parties.

It would be easy to slant this as mindless Microsoft bashing, but in 
fact the same conclusion was reached by the NASA board of inquiry, after 
Challenger, and a crew of astronauts, was scattered across three or four 
states; NASA management had replied excessively upon Microsoft, 
PowerPoint, and Project utilities to do their thinking for them, and had 
allowed themselves to be reduced to committees, watching cartoons, 
carefully dumbed down to a level they were not threatened by.

(Some might challenge that interpretation; but, hey, I'm trying to pack 
it all into a few short sentences.)

Regards,

-- richard

-- 

Richard Childers / Senior Engineer
Daemonized Networking Services
945 Taraval Street, #105
San Francisco, CA 94116 USA
[011.]1.415.759.5571
https://www.daemonized.com