Nancy,
I'm a battle-scarred veteran and I've seen it all and heard it all (and fixed it all) here at The Ashram. I am certainly well-poised for this next phase: turning all that grist into something finer through the creative process.
The book I'm writing will be useful because it will turn on its head what amounts to incredible, intense, and utterly blind narcissism on the part of most computer users. Users are always asking "what can my computer do for me, how can I get it to work harder, work correctly, serve me better, etc.?"
But most users never EVER ask what their computers want! It's simple but true, and it's not a joke or even a metaphor. When users come into my shop and tell me something they did to their machine (such as upgrade a machine to Windows 2000), I ask them, "if your computer could think and if your computer could talk, and if you ASKED it whether it wanted to be upgraded to Windows 2000, what do you think it would say?" Then I watch their faces.
First they scan mine to see whether I'm joking, or having an episode of temporary insanity. When they see in response a face that could easily adorn Mt. Rushmore, then they usually stammer and stutter and say they hadn't thought about it that way.
And that is where my book will fit. Taking the stammering and the stuttering and running with it.
The scenario works the other way, too. Somebody brings some poor machine in that's struggling along with just 32MB of memory. I URGE them to have me put some more memory into it; the poor hard drive is beating itself up with constant disk accesses. They say "no," they don't want to spend the money ("You see, we'll be getting a new system in a few years anyway, so...)."
To this I pose the same question: "If your computer could think and if your computer could talk, and if you ASKED it whether it wanted to have a RAM upgrade, what do you think it would say?" And then I watch...
Listen, gang, cars want and need gasoline and fresh oil and proper air in their tires and new parts when the old ones wear out, and yes, they even want a wash and wax now and then.
Flowers want sun and fresh air and good soil with nutrients and fresh water.
Computers have needs too -- LOTS OF THEM (after all, they are incredibly complex devices) -- but astonishingly, most users are virtually clueless about what those needs might be, not to mention how to satisfy them.
SS
5:30:39 PM 
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