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Why they won't listen
Why are Mac users unable to lure the Windows crowd into their joyful world? The answer can be found in region and beliefs as much as in product features.
Dilbert author and bright man Scott Adams has the answer by exploring the phenomenon of relativity.
The fact is that everybody is right within their own "bubble of reality": a religious person will have a perfect explanation why God exists, and that will make no sense whatsoever to an atheist.
To quote Adams:
"My reasoning makes absolutely no sense after it leaves my bubble of reality and enters theirs. Somehow it turns into nonsense on the trip. When I try to explain my reasoning, it’s like yelling English to a Chinese speaking guy and hoping the extra volume will help."
Reality is distorted for every individual, be they Mac, Linux or Windows fans
believers. If people won't even agree which colour red is pure red,
surely we will never have a monotonous computing environment.
All religions are right in their own opinion. But how can it be that none are wrong?
Tags: windows, apple, mac, linux, dilbert
June 5, 2006 at 07:41 PM | Permalink
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» ¿Por qué nunca escucharán? from Silicon Valley Sleuth ES
¿Por qué no son capac es los usuarios de Mac atraer a las multitudes de Windows a su mundo feliz? La respuesta se puede encontrar en la región de las creencias más que en la de las características de los... [Read More]
Tracked on 6 Jun 2006 16:20:36
Comments
"... regions and believes"? What's that? Go write "religions and beliefs" à la Bart Simpson 50 times!
On the good side of it though, i came here after clicking on the MacSurfer link featuring the typos, because that made it really stand out! Good article too. Thanks.
Posted-by: jean-paul buquet | 5 Jun 2006 23:48:18
But the question is, even if we all have our "bubble of reality", is there really a real reality that lurks behind it all?
Posted-by: mark | 6 Jun 2006 00:55:49
More than obvious why people don't want APPLE.
1. the plastic junk on their tabletop costs less.
2.all of the people they know give them support
or sympathy and they bond in their similar hell.
3.they have intel inside (this makes people cool
modern, up-to-date, with it.) nes pas?
4.network comm is nearly plug and play.
5.GAMES for their wired children.(other kids are
jelous).
6.free software (go to a usenet group and find mac
apps. after you wade thru thousands of $1400
bootlegged copies for xp for free).
7.until intel for mac you could get fabulous floating
point calculations nearly equivalent to a good alpha
server box. but people wanted integer processing
for their scrabble game not weather forecasting.
HAD Enough?
Posted-by: Dayton Naugle | 6 Jun 2006 01:00:31
Nah. It's just inertia.
Posted-by: Richard | 6 Jun 2006 01:36:46
The religious analogy is an interesting one.
I'll use my roomate's family as an example. Her parent's are catholic. They go to church at least twice-a-day. My roomate is catholic. She goes to church every Sunday--come hell or high-water. Her sister is catholic. She goes to church every Sunday if it's convenient (ie, she's in town and there isn't anything incredibly pressing going on).
Yet they all consider themselves to be "good catholics."
The religious analogy is fun because it's usually used by those who are evangelical. For, those people, their religion is part of what makes them who they are. Their identity is tied up in being a firm-believer in a particular religion and they don't want to hear anything that does not connect with their beliefs because that would imply that they are somehow wrong.
Evangelical computer users are the same way. Their identity is attached to their choice: MY computer is RIGHT. YOUR computer is WRONG. When, in most cases, the rest of the world thinks the whole argument is silly. If it works for you, what's the problem?
I've been a Mac user since 1985 and a developer since 1988. The vast majority of people I have dealt with, when they see a Mac in my home, go "Oh. You use a Mac? How nice." They don't really care one way or another.
As for Scott Adams' comments, he's right to a degree. There are things we will argue about and things we don't care about and they will be different for each of us.
For example, when I "rate" a restaurant, I consider price, quality of the food, waitstaff, and environment. There's a steak place that I love--great steaks, attentive waitstaff, and a nice environment. Of course, it's VERY expensive--dinner for two runs about $100. But I consider it to be a good "value", in that I know without a doubt that I will enjoy my meal. Of course, some people will just look at the price and say, "Screw that! I'm not paying $100 for two steaks when I can get steaks at Denny's/HoJos for $30!"
To use Dayton's list above, he has a different aesthetic sense than Mac users do or doesn't care about physical appearance (1). He believes in safety in numbers (2). He's always looking for the least expensive solution (1, 5, 6). These are what's important to him. It isn't the same as what is important to me. Yes, seeing his list of reasons makes me want to make snarky replies ("Usenet?! How 1980s of you!"). But, ultimately, if his solution works for him, that's great.
Posted-by: Peter | 6 Jun 2006 02:02:11
The simplest answer is always the best: people work hard to be incredibly average.
Posted-by: Paul Greatbatch | 6 Jun 2006 03:27:34
Scott Adams is partially right. But honestly, one big reason that the Mac population constantly overlook is the zealots. Nobody wants to be like them, and that's how Mac users are viewed. Forget the product. The product is fine, it's the people that're sinking Apple. Everything from Jobs' snobbish attitude to the sheer childishness of half the Mac news sites out there. It's become a total joke that, if you even dare to write something bad about Apple, or the Mac, no matter how true it may be, your inbox will be overflowing with the most vicious hate mail in a matter of hours.
Posted-by: James | 6 Jun 2006 04:01:55
Spanish
