[Discuss] Its not possible to make things easier for users

[Derek Martin]

On Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 06:21:59PM -0500, Rich Pieri wrote:
> On Mon, 14 Jan 2013 17:39:10 -0500
> Shirley Márquez Dúlcey <mark at buttery.org> wrote:
> 
> > The catch is that this may cause a severe performance drop in an
> > engine designed for high octane fuel, not the mere 10HP that
> > somebody alluded to.
> 
> That was me, and it shouldn't be more than about 10HP at the high end
> under normal circumstances.
>
> ANYWAY. Joe Consumer doesn't give a damn about any of this. He just
> wants to push a button, fill the tank, and go.

Yes, but this kind of speaks to Mark's points (regarding things being
complicated and Joe Consumer not knowing what he doesn't know).  Your
assertions quite differ from everything I personally have read on the
subject (which is a fair number of articles at this point) and even if
you ARE right, my owner's manual states quite clearly that running on
low octane gas will damage the engine, and the catalytic converter,
and void my warranty.  I'll choose to believe the folks who'll make me
pay hand over fist to repair my car for doing what they expressly told
me not to... 

I'm not about to trust that YOU know what you don't know, since it's
nearly impossible to know that something you think you know is
wrong.  I (fortunately) lack the empirical experience to KNOW whether
you're right, and acquiring that experience is not worth the expense
of doing so, should you turn out to be wrong.   Sources of information
are plentiful; sources of CORRECT information are few, and even those
may be open to interpretation.  

Why does this matter to this discussion?  In part, it's because most
people aren't interested in reading their owner's manual, and as a
result are more likely to listen to, say, trusted friends who may or
may not have any idea what they're talking about.  Worse yet, they'll
listen to people they recognize on the internet...  But either way,
they got their info from someone whom at some point they decided they
trust; so when they come to you, the well-informed support person,
they're not in a hurry to believe you, if what you're telling them
differs from what they think they know.  I like to call this "who got
there first" syndrome.

-- 
Derek D. Martin    http://www.pizzashack.org/   GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02
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