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The Perspective “we” all miss…

{ Posted on 9:32 PM by Vivek }
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This is my second purely non technical post since my first one.  I like writing applications and also using them. But I as a .. ahem.. developer, miss being “the user”. What I mean is that I completely forgot the “user only perspective”. Think about facebook or orkut. If you’re a normal user, you’d think about “doing what they were meant for” messaging and scraping and chatting and all the good stuff, but if you’re developer you would wander off into a dream that only a software geek understands. As for me, I’d think of the AJAX UI, JavaScript, I do use them, but the essence of wonder, the surprise is spoiled. Much like a magic trick, If you know how its done you’ll loose the element of bewilderment (going insane and saying ”its freaking awesome” ).

I think when it comes to software, that is one of the things that drives a developer (IMHO of course), i.e we developers don't stop at saying “who cares as long  how it works ”, we do care. Well I don’t mean to say that Non-developers are ignorant its just that they don’t fit in very well. Again I mean no offense to the non-developer community. Its like I wondering how a particle accelerator like CERN work. I mean the wonder and  the surprise I have hearing about it stays that way, one day if I know a respectable amount (though very very unlikely) of information about the CERN, may be i wouldn't be so awed at hearing facts those mind blowing facts about it.

I just cant imagine the sense of amazement i would have if i had no clue about how Microsoft-Touch works and I get to use it for the first time.Hmm. Like I said I don’t know. You have to be a complete user to understand it. Oh i wish I could.

At the same time imagine you’re with a non-developer friend and you’re Burning a CD, as the progress bar, progresses (pun intended), suddenly he cant stand it any more and he tells you “why don’t they make it faster by allowing us to drag the progress bar”, thinking about slide controls or scroll bars. Now those are the kind of situations where you feel a tad more grateful for being a developer. :)

Another instance is where another friend of mine got excited, and asked me if i can write a program for quickly charging his laptop. They’re not being ignorant they’re used to “free lunches” like that. Its our fault.

Either way its a different deal being a developer, I love it absolutely but the thing is this mysterious longing to be a complete computer novice   again. May be I’m being a little spiritual here, but hey,I’m being honest.Personally I think being a developer is being a magician (a conjurer if you’re British). Fellow magicians can sometimes surprise each other, but they usually work out the mechanics. But  a user in many ways are like the spectators. They simply have more fun.

I definitely miss those days, when using MS paint was a trip to Disney land,

as my uncle once commented on seeing his son Alex going wild painting on MS Paint.

”hey, don’t use up every bit (of paint ) leave some for tomorrow”

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