Computers are dumbing-down our society

[michaels]

I was at Taco Bell getting something and the girl got the order wrong and she had to give me back some change, and she got to stuttering and acted totally perplexed. Is it that hard to figure out proper change? Take engineers for example, I would bet engineers of old before computers were smarter than todays counterpart who use computers.

 

[Ika]

This is basically a known fact of life.

 

[sixone]

She's a teenager, working at Taco Bell. You were expecting Shakespeare?

 

[Minjin]

Originally posted by: sixone
She's a teenager, working at Taco Bell. You were expecting Shakespeare?

Shakespeare was known for his math skills?

 

[OS]

Originally posted by: michaels
I was at Taco Bell getting something and the girl got the order wrong and she had to give me back some change, and she got to stuttering and acted totally perplexed. Is it that hard to figure out proper change? Take engineers for example, I would bet engineers of old before computers were smarter than todays counterpart who use computers.

i seriously doubt that, computers allow extra levels of abstraction so engineers don't waste their time micro managing details. The world would not be a better place if all engineers used punch card computers and abacuses.

 

[michaels]

Just because someone is a teen and working a job there means nothing. Not everyone is a spoiled turd who has momma and daddy give them everything.

 

[Tsaico]

I wholly agree... It even goes to some of the more basic math functions like percentages. I was working with this one gal who was complaining that when the computer had gone down she had to first do the math to find out how much the tax rate was on the rooms (I work at a hotel), write it down, then re-enter the origional room rate, then add the two together, then write the total down on a sheet of paper.

I told her instead of this, she should just multiply by 1.11 to get her answer instead of once by .11 to get the tax value then add. She had no idea what I was talking about and couldn't understand why it worked out to the same total. Then she just threw her hands up and said, "well, your the computer guy so I will just trust you".

 

[FilmCamera]

Originally posted by: sixone
She's a teenager, working at Taco Bell. You were expecting Shakespeare?

As a teenager I could easily count change. However I have never, and never will, work at fast food.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: Minjin

Originally posted by: sixone
She's a teenager, working at Taco Bell. You were expecting Shakespeare?

Shakespeare was known for his math skills?

haha

 

[Atheus]

Stop using them then.

 

[magomago]

Originally posted by: OS

Originally posted by: michaels
I was at Taco Bell getting something and the girl got the order wrong and she had to give me back some change, and she got to stuttering and acted totally perplexed. Is it that hard to figure out proper change? Take engineers for example, I would bet engineers of old before computers were smarter than todays counterpart who use computers.

i seriously doubt that, computers allow extra levels of abstraction so engineers don't waste their time micro managing details. The world would not be a better place if all engineers used punch card computers and abacuses.

qft. We need to learn what these tools are doing fundamentally but there is a LOT of work , especially when it comes to solving partial differential equations, that simply cannot be done analytically (well...as of yet ) and MUST be done computationally...A computer can sum up billions of numbers much nicer than a human can... Getting all that BS out of the way lets us focus on more difficult tasks

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: OS

Originally posted by: michaels
I was at Taco Bell getting something and the girl got the order wrong and she had to give me back some change, and she got to stuttering and acted totally perplexed. Is it that hard to figure out proper change? Take engineers for example, I would bet engineers of old before computers were smarter than todays counterpart who use computers.

i seriously doubt that, computers allow extra levels of abstraction so engineers don't waste their time micro managing details. The world would not be a better place if all engineers used punch card computers and abacuses.

Not arguing your point, but I have run into a few younger engineers who do calculations on the computer and don't even recognize when the answer makes no sense due to errors they made in the formulas. The older guys don't seem to do that - they have a feel for the general magnitude of what the answer should be.

I do think this is due to computers. The ones I'm talking about just take every answer at face value.

An example would be estimating the remaining cost to finish some work. They assign a duration to the various unfinished tasks, figure out the cost per hour, and set up a formula to calculate everything. If the number comes out to be $150,000 (when it should be in the neighborhood of $25,000) they don't even question it. Some higher-up will ask for a breakdown of the extremely high cost and that's when they find the error. The older engineers seem to intuitively recognize something is wrong before anyone else sees it.

 

[Blazin Trav]

Why don't you cook your own meals instead? Or eat somewhere else? Taco Bell? Yuck.

 

[Ktulu]

I fail to see the correlation.

 

[OS]

Originally posted by: kranky

Originally posted by: OS

Originally posted by: michaels
I was at Taco Bell getting something and the girl got the order wrong and she had to give me back some change, and she got to stuttering and acted totally perplexed. Is it that hard to figure out proper change? Take engineers for example, I would bet engineers of old before computers were smarter than todays counterpart who use computers.

i seriously doubt that, computers allow extra levels of abstraction so engineers don't waste their time micro managing details. The world would not be a better place if all engineers used punch card computers and abacuses.

Not arguing your point, but I have run into a few younger engineers who do calculations on the computer and don't even recognize when the answer makes no sense due to errors they made in the formulas. The older guys don't seem to do that - they have a feel for the general magnitude of what the answer should be.

I do think this is due to computers. The ones I'm talking about just take every answer at face value.

An example would be estimating the remaining cost to finish some work. They assign a duration to the various unfinished tasks, figure out the cost per hour, and set up a formula to calculate everything. If the number comes out to be $150,000 (when it should be in the neighborhood of $25,000) they don't even question it. Some higher-up will ask for a breakdown of the extremely high cost and that's when they find the error. The older engineers seem to intuitively recognize something is wrong before anyone else sees it.

that may not be related to computers at all, it may simply be an experience issue.
Someone who has done the same work for 10 years will better know what results to expect than a guy on the job for a couple months. The same judgement error could be made by hand, slide ruler, whatever.

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: kranky

Originally posted by: OS

Originally posted by: michaels
I was at Taco Bell getting something and the girl got the order wrong and she had to give me back some change, and she got to stuttering and acted totally perplexed. Is it that hard to figure out proper change? Take engineers for example, I would bet engineers of old before computers were smarter than todays counterpart who use computers.

i seriously doubt that, computers allow extra levels of abstraction so engineers don't waste their time micro managing details. The world would not be a better place if all engineers used punch card computers and abacuses.

Not arguing your point, but I have run into a few younger engineers who do calculations on the computer and don't even recognize when the answer makes no sense due to errors they made in the formulas. The older guys don't seem to do that - they have a feel for the general magnitude of what the answer should be.

I do think this is due to computers. The ones I'm talking about just take every answer at face value.

An example would be estimating the remaining cost to finish some work. They assign a duration to the various unfinished tasks, figure out the cost per hour, and set up a formula to calculate everything. If the number comes out to be $150,000 (when it should be in the neighborhood of $25,000) they don't even question it. Some higher-up will ask for a breakdown of the extremely high cost and that's when they find the error. The older engineers seem to intuitively recognize something is wrong before anyone else sees it.

That would have to be a pretty stupid engineer... I mean you're saying they can't do simple multiplication in their head....