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0 pointsvirgil_disgr4ce2mo ago0 comments

Opinionation (heh, opinionatedness?)'s value is entirely different depending on the user category.

Hackers by and large don't want opinionated, because they're willing to spend the time configuring & customizing AND have the knowledge to do so.

Just about everyone else (as far as I can tell) very specifically do not want this, and for those who do, the amount of customizeability e.g. MacOS offers is enough. Having an immediately-useable computer (recent problems notwithstanding) is of much greater value.

So when you say "The main problem is that Apple wants to be opinionated" I can only conclude that you're coming at this from the 'hacker' POV. But I may be misunderstanding your comment.

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amelius2mo ago

I think the problem is that opinionatedness assumes that the average user exists and represents the majority of your users.

But every user is in many ways non-average.

Thus if you create a system tailored at the average user, then none of your users will be happy.

virgil_disgr4ceOP2mo ago

> But every user is in many ways non-average.

This is objectively true. There's an excellent 99PI about exactly this: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/on-average/

> Thus if you create a system tailored at the average user, then none of your users will be happy.

This is objectively false. Some users will find some frustration or unhappiness with certain things, but remarkably, there are plenty of software UIs that get the job done for just about everyone.

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