SRStarin comments on Learned Blankness - Less Wrong

130 Post author: AnnaSalamon 18 April 2011 06:55PM

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Comment author: SRStarin 19 April 2011 03:00:49PM 7 points [-]

The people I know who think of themselves as "bad with computers" are generally worried that they are going to destroy hardware, software, or data files if they make a mistake. They know enough to know that, in the abstract, they really can do severe damage with a few button pushes, but they don't know precisely where the danger areas lie. It's an area in which people have a strong incentive to pretend to know very little so they can more easily convince knowledgeable friends and relatives to help them.

My mother is one such person, and one thing that has helped her a lot was for me to set up an admin account on her laptop and to explain how she should always use her non-admin account, but the admin account would pop up when she needs those privileges. It's a flag for her that, if she doesn't get asked for her admin password, the most harm she can do is delete files, and even those might be recoverable.

Comment author: SilasBarta 19 April 2011 05:06:56PM *  4 points [-]

The fear is well grounded. When I first tried to install Linux, I figured I was being safe by doing dual boot and only putting Linux on a tertiary hard drive rather than the main. (And so I'd access it by choosing to boot from that nice, modular component on startup.)

Result: Locked out of entire computer; cannot get past bootloader. Higher distaste for existence.

Comment author: MarcTheEngineer 19 April 2011 04:49:51PM 1 point [-]

I'd agree that many people have a learned helplessness when dealing with computers because of a fear that they can easily break their computer.

I disagree that really destroying your computer is a very easy thing to do (sans going into the BIOS or touching the actual hardware)

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 19 April 2011 05:27:50PM 5 points [-]

I disagree that really destroying your computer is a very easy thing to do (sans going into the BIOS or touching the actual hardware)

rm -r /

Comment author: lasagnaman 19 April 2011 07:25:16PM 6 points [-]

sudo rm -rf /

Comment author: Risto_Saarelma 20 April 2011 08:20:00AM *  6 points [-]

sudo rm -rf / &

It's no fun if you can just C-c to stop it.

Comment author: Cyan 19 April 2011 08:14:08PM 4 points [-]

I get a creepy feeling just looking at that.

Comment author: Luke_A_Somers 31 December 2011 07:27:34AM 2 points [-]

No kidding. It's like saying 'Zeeky Boogy Doog' out loud.

Comment author: Cayenne 19 April 2011 08:23:23PM *  3 points [-]

I did that once! Without the sudo, so it was even worse because I was logged in as root. Oops? Now every time I do anything as root I triple-check it. Destroying my system wasn't really fun, but it taught me a really valuable lesson.

Edit - please disregard this post

Comment author: zntneo 07 May 2011 09:16:53AM 0 points [-]

I had a boss who did that to an entire lab of computers just after a coworker finished reimaging them.

Comment author: CuSithBell 19 April 2011 05:32:30PM 4 points [-]

Yeah, but who's going to accidentally install linux? ;)

Comment author: Gray 19 April 2011 06:34:04PM 8 points [-]

It's like falling and missing the ground. Happens all the time. For some reason people don't let me borrow their computers anymore.

Comment author: wedrifid 19 April 2011 06:54:07PM 2 points [-]

The 'f' switch helps!

Comment author: komponisto 19 April 2011 10:16:21PM 1 point [-]

rm -r /

Video.