I Want My Computer to be as Easy to Use as My Rice Cooker

There is a (by now oldish) saying, attributed to Bjarne Stroustrup:

I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how to use my telephone.

I used to riff on this with the following variant:

For the sake of my parents, I want their computer to be as easy to use as my rice cooker.

My wish now has come true, as the WSJ reports about the new Mi rice cooker (local copy), which is controlled by a mobile app and needs resetting using a small pin.

Posted on

2016-04-05

Comments

Michael Richmond

2016-04-05

As ridiculous and humorous the rice cooker is, I’ve never understood this quote.
A telephone is a single-purpose device. A computer has never been a single-purpose device. Mobile phones became complicated when they changed from a single-purpose device to a multi-purpose device with a poor UI. We have improved on the design of phone UI’s lately, but there is still inherent complexity in a multi-purpose device. Even more so in a general-purpose device like a computer.

Reply