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Your mom is a tech ninja
Your boss? Not so much.
What makes someone “good at technology?” In part, it’s an understanding of the underlying technical principles and industry conventions — what a “power on” icon looks like, say. I have a lot of that. But there’s another component, one that’s often invisible to people like me: the extent to which your technology was designed to suit your needs.
I have a lot of that, too. I’m a 50 year old, middle-class, tech-industry adjacent professional man with an honorary PhD in computer science. Not only do tech designers think like and about me when they create new products — they often ask me what I think I need.
Several times per year, I’ll get on a call with product managers and researchers at both big and small tech companies to discuss some planned product. I am good at tech, but tech is also good at me. It doesn’t just meet me halfway — it bends over backwards to meet my needs.
Some years ago, I joined the advisory board for Simply Secure, a nonprofit that helps tech designers build strong security tools that are intended to be usable by non-technical people.
In my first call with the org’s founder, Meredith Whittaker, I suggested a slogan for the products we helped with: “So easy, even your boss can use them.” You…
